Read this and AWOL and though I liked AWOL I think this might be a better story
936371
Read this and AWOL and though I liked AWOL I think this might be a better story. Thanks for the great read.
1646792
I like this story which turns to the quite different direction than I would image. I did enjoy reading it.
2170568
This is a story about being an explorer, about old leadership making way for new ideas, and about the role of artificial intelligence in the future. After the earth becomes uninhabitable, groups of people are sent through the galaxy to find a new home. Two storylines are presented in this book - one of the AI and one of the colonists. The AI storyline has yet to be fully developed and we'll have to wait for the next books to see how it plays out. The story of the colonists, and Laat in particular, is a story of hope. I really like the character of Bula. The imagery is strong. A stark world of two suns and a damaged moon with moonlets trailing behind; I can't decide if I envy the colonists or glad I'm not part of it.
2365090
Maybe not one of my favorites, but I did like the story.
3334103
Even though the premise of the first book was not very realistic, I still liked it better than this one as it had me laughing in some parts of it. Both books have plenty of sex but the story in the second book was not as fun and different as the first one - to me anyway. I do like the characters and will buy the next one to finish out their story. It seems like the story is kind of going in the direction of FSOG now and I can pretty much guess how the story will get wrapped up.
2930671
I appreciate womens fiction thats not afraid to be real, addressing serious issues head-on, yet with hope. Im also drawn to slip-time stories that peel back the years to reveal a previously unknown slice of history, weaving it into a contemporary context. The concept for this story is brilliant and worthy of literary exploration.

For all it had going for it, I didn't find myself connecting to the characters as strongly as Id hoped. They seemed kind of surface-y, not quite real. A part of this is that the dialogue sometimes felt a bit stilted  which I acknowledge is my own subjective take and may not necessarily strike another reader the same way. One more highly subjective observation: I wouldnt have minded seeing earlier and more frequent sparks between two main characters.

I did really like the way the author brought two very disparate story lines together, weaving them in the end into a compelling and emotionally satisfying conclusion. I also liked the direction the characters were headed as the novel ended.

Thanks to BookLook and Thomas Nelson for providing me this book free of charge. All opinions are mine.
3377261
While I like the premise of this story, I don't really care for the writing style. It sometimes seemed a little scattered, and there were many scenes I don't think moved the story forward. I liked the characters well enough, but wish they would have been a little more developed. I think this one has the potential to be a really good story, but could benefit from some re-writes and good editing.
3340259
I can say that I enjoyed every other chapter. I'm even considering purchasing the second book in the future (oh yea, they forgot to tell you the story doesn't end here). It was a lot of the "In Iraq" military hoopla that I just brushed over. I don't know anything about the military, or they're slang. It was written well enough that I could follow the story regardless; and that part of the story was necessary to get the full aspect of what the author was going for but it wasn't as enjoyable to me. Really did enjoy the "end though". Hope this author writes more to come.
2270759
For me this was more like 3.5 stars but closer to three than four, so that's why I gave it three. Interestingly enough, I read through chapter 7 of The Stones Cry Out and never had the desire to pick it up again, so I didn't. But then I'd read some positive things about this author's work and saw some nominations for awards and thought maybe I missed something. So I agreed to do a blog tour for this book.

I did finish The Clouds Roll Away because I agreed to post a review for the tour, or I probably wouldn't have finished this book. The writing style seemed kind of choppy to me and sometimes spiritual reflection seemed to come out of the sky. It was nice that I read it around Christmas since that was the time period for the majority of the story, but at the same time the continual references to phrases in well-known Christmas songs and hymns annoyed me. Why not just say mom was listening to Silent Night? Or O Holy Night? Most people know the lyrics anyway, so quoting partial phrases didn't make sense to me. Even non-Christians know those songs.

Anyway, I did find some aspects of the FBI theme compelling and it was kinda cool how various seemingly unrelated elements pulled together toward the end. At the same time, I found some of the details a bit gruesome (like people's faces being blown off and then described further than that) and so I got some unpleasant visuals of bloated dead bodies and such. I was scared for her when she kept dealing with the crack house. But other than that, I would have to say if I never read another book by Sibella I wouldn't be sad about it. She just doesn't write the type of stories I enjoy reading. If she had gotten a little deeper into her relationship with her mother or with Demott, then I would have enjoyed the story more. It just seemed too superficial to me and other than worrying about Raleigh on occasion, I didn't connect much with the characters in the story.

On the positive end, I did feel like I knew Raleigh better by book's end, so that was good, but if I hadn't been doing the tour I probably would've stopped reading it about halfway through when the part about finding the dead guys in the water came up, because it grossed me out so much. At that point I still felt like I barely knew Raleigh. It could be one of those situations where reading prior novels in the series would have given me an entirely different perspective.

I did find it interesting that a white author had written so many negative things into this storyline that were racial stereotypes for both white and black folks, and the author hasn't been criticized. Then again, this story was set in the old south, so racial tension has pretty much been a deep thread in Virginia history for centuries, so it fit the storyline. Did this book inspire me? Not really. But it might inspire someone else. The author definitely knows how to weave a compelling, if not a bit gruesome and complex suspense/crime mystery. That was well done.
2809820
This was a tale I wanted to enjoy.  The idea is not exactly unique since the write up made it clear that it was a tale of the young royal who grew up as a commoner and suddenly discovers that they have power.  Well, it isn't exactly that since Armageddon Girl has Christine Dark grow up in a mundane world with no superpowers only to wake up after a drunken party and find herself in a parallel world where superpowers exist and she had great, if unknown powers.

This had so much potential.  The idea is there, the writing is definitely there.  C.J. is an excellent author overall, and her story was easy to read.  Sadly, the plot wasn't there.

It was just too complex and only plays out by Christine being overpowered and a bit of a Mary Sue.  The people who meet her like her quickly and want to help, or are defeated by her.  Yes, there is a bit of a challenge in there, but she learns fast and it is implied that she is one of the most powerful superhumans in the world.

And then there is the mystery.  How Christine got to the parallel world, why she was even born, and who the bad guys are.  All are hidden in the story, but the way the mystery unwound was painful.  I felt that the badguys were over the top, that there were too many different groups scheming against each other, and too few true heroes.  I can understand an author wanting to write in a few flaws, but here it seems like flaws are all the heroes have.

Overall, this is a compelling book, but a good editor who reigned in on some of the plot twists and helped concentrate the tale around a single plotter would have made it a lot stronger.

I do recommend this.
627122
**ARC given by the author in exchange for an honest review**

 I liked the story, it wasn't the best I've read but this author but it was OK. We met Fian when he first came to Earth trying to escape the Conquest, a group of their own people who destroyed every planet they landed.  The fear that they would find Earth is ever present. Fian is a soldier so he knows how dangerous their situation is, also to those who welcomed them on their land. But at the same time he is jealous of Zax who found his mate. But mates can only be an Alpha-Omega relationships, and the pack they visit has only one - Zax's mate. So he knows he will be lonely. Then, Ellis makes his presence. Not a wolf but a valuable member of the pack nonetheless. It becomes obvious the attraction between them won't go away. Both soldiers, both damaged souls who saw and experienced too much on the battle field.
A good, next installment in the series.
602863
Overall I felt the story was good and strong. It was cool to read about how quickly everything went into chaos. While the powers that be we're trying to figure out what it was. My own complaint would be that the author needs to research more on military time and how elite units operate and how a mission really dictates what weapons they use.
4010371
I was really excited to read Shadow & Claw, the idea of the story taking place on a super distant future Earth was fascinating to me. The book opened on a world very similar to my expectations and as the story unwound I really enjoyed myself. There were a few asides that I still don't totally understand the purpose of but  I enjoyed it.

As I transitioned from the first story, Shadow, to the second, Claw, I found that the writing style changed in a way that I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Where Shadow seemed to make sense as a contiguous narrative with a larger goal and several small interludes, Claw became vingettes that didn't really seem to me like they belonged together, with an overarching goal that seemed irrelevent. The writing style varies and more is done to try and expose the world while adding to the mystery but it didn't feel like it was held together by much. Had I read Claw as a stand alone, as it was originally published, I would have never come back to this author for any future books.

I'm still uncertain on this book. I think the world is interesting, I like most of the main characters. There's a little too much discontinuity for me in the total story to say I would ever encourage another person to read it. I'm totally undecided as to whether I will try to read the second half of the series.
2559997
Eh.

Then vs. Than

Saw the antagonist coming from a mile away.

Appreciate the hero.

I think the author has potential.
3834323
Right up front I will tell you, Im giving this one 3.5 stars out of 5.  Keep in mind that a 3 star rating isn't a bad rating it just means I feel there is room for improvement.

Having already read all the books in the Sookie Stackhouse series I feel I am pretty familiar with Mrs. Harriss writing and I know how spellbinding she can be so I wanted to give this new series of hers a try.

Let me begin with the issues I had with it so I can end on a high note. One difficulty authors have to navigate is spelling too much out for the reader so the reader ends up feeling spoon-fed, this can come across feeling as though there is too much unnecessary information and the writer is simply going for word-count.  With this book I felt there was too much left up for the reader to assume a bit more information should have been given.  It really wasn't clear how Midnight came to be.  You do eventually discover why a couple of the characters ended up there but I found quite a bit to be too vague within this story.  Granted, that can be a very tricky wire for an author to tread and I acknowledge that so please note, this is simply my opinion.

 Its understood that Midnight is not precisely your normal small, sleepy, podunk, Texas town; the reader knows this going in if you read the summary. This leads me to my second problem I found with this story; everything is accepted so easily by the towns new comer.  Granted he isn't precisely normal himself which can explain his easy acceptance but the locals are all too welcoming too. The dynamic of having so many unusual people in one town with a newbie with special gifts just felt off to me. I expected people to be more wary, more defensive; I guess I would have expected to have more conflict with the newbie, at least at firstespecially since they had so many secrets to keep and his gifts were pretty well known by some in town.

My last issue with this book is that its pretty slow to get into.  The plot really doesnt gain steam until you are two-thirds of the way through the book, then I finally found it really getting interesting. Having said that, its also definitely not one of those books that I just wanted to give up on, it did keep me reading until I did finally get into it but honestlyit did drag for quite some time. It reminds me of those movies I sometimes find myself watching wondering why am I still watching this?.but then glad I stuck with it when its over because it turned out to be pretty good after all. You know what Im talking about.

Now, on to what I did like about this book (see, I said I did like it.) There are a couple of unexpected moments in this book I really appreciatedyou really don't see whodunit until that twist unfolds; I really love when that happens! I also really found the local witch and her cat to be particularly favorite and fun characters of mine, specifically when Mr. Snuggly speaks up. He was a fun addition to the mix and really made me smile a few times.

Now, I know its obvious that the what I liked portion of this book is considerably shorter than the issues portion of it but thats simply because its easier to explain the issues I had with it than for me to point out everything I liked.  Over all I did like the book. It kept me reading, I did find myself invested in a few of the characters, I did like the twist at the end and I really like that I am interested enough to read the next in the series.  Isnt that really the point?  I do want to read more about Midnight, Texas.  It dawns on me as I write this review that I believe Mrs. Harris was using this book as a way to lay groundwork for the consecutive books.  So, time to check out Day Shift, the second book in the Midnight, Texas series.
860207
I enjoyed AWOL's adventures on the trail.  He has a very direct way of saying things that grew on me after a while.  He has a good outlook on life, he seems to honestly portray his thoughts, and he meets some interesting characters along the way.
4293459
This was an enjoyable second book in what will be a multi-book series. I liked the story a lot, but it seems to now move in 4 separate story lines. It has moved away from the beginning premise of a cataclysmic trapped in space event. Now it is following a more typical world ending crisis storyline. I kind of liked the original premise of trapped in space because it was an seemingly original take on a somewhat formulaic storyline. Nevertheless, it is well written, I like the characters, it is apolitical and I look forward to the next book.