Disappointingly Boring
922058
I normally, when choosing a new novel to read, research the author, as well as the story line. However, in choosing this book, I let the addendum to the title - "bestselling psychological drama" - be the determining factor. I

This book was boring (no action), predictable, & had no depth to the plot or the characters. I do not recommend it to anyone - so sorry...
3494031
My wife hooked me on this series several years ago, with To The Nines. I have been a fan ever since. The triangle really doesn't interest me that much,(although I really don't get the part of Morelli being a "catch")but I'm a sucker for the comedy that Evanovich writes and I once thought Stephanie was a pretty spunky lady. I was terribly disappointed with this book. Not only was it not funny, it was down right boring. I couldn't follow the plot, and I gave up reading around the 5th chapter. The worst part of the whole book was the portrayal of the characters. Stephanie is boring, Joe is boring, hell even Grandma is boring. If this what the rest of the series holds, then this was it for me.
4392458
I couldn't even make it through to the end -- one of the most boring I have picked up in a long time.

I usually can try to stick through most books until the end, but this one dragged on and one and was extremely boring.  Not sure how it has so many great reviews.  Buyer beware.
4708124
I admit that I bought this book based on the TV advertisement and the Amazon reviews, but this book was so incredibly boring. I figured out the "surprising twist" about who was the sociopath at about page 100. After spending $15 on this book I was really expecting a good read. I was sadly disappointed. I completely lost interest when the book focused on uninteresting characterss, there was an entire subplot about bickering over a divorce. When I am reading a thriller it did not help the character development at all. For a book that has such a heavy emphasis on the mystery aspects throughout their advertising there really wasn't much about a sociopath until the end. And by that point I had already lost all my interest in the book.
2590453
I am a huge Jonathan Kellerman fan - have read everything but this new book is just incredibly boring. The language is very self indulgent and where plot shoud be, there are just endless descriptions of people or events that don't really relate to the story. The only thing worse is the reader of the audio - flat, dull, the story may be putting him to sleep and his "female" character voice is just terrible. I was also offended by the need to use stereo type descriptions of Asian characters in the book. Very unusual and I'm so disappointed.
4361105
Over the past few years I discovered that the so-called "young adult" novels can be quite good.  I've come to especially enjoy Dystopian and Apocalyptic novels.  I also enjoy some of the fantasy books and then I really like the better zombie and vampire series, all to my surprise. However, with Blades of Winter: A Novel of Shadowstorm  I merely wanted to find an interesting read; it didn't have to be a fantastic. The book failed to produce at all.  I kept trying to read more of the book hoping I'd get to something better but it was so boring.  I could not develop any interest or investment whatsoever in the main characters and, in fact, found that I did not want to read about her at all.  She was too phoney and that's hard to say considering the purported subject matter of this book.  As far as a storyline, well, I couldn't identify one.  I keep lowering the stars I've assigned as a rating but I'm ending up with one star.  Obviously, I do not recommend this book, even for free.
4963200
This book started as a fun easy "chick lit" read. Then, somewhere after the fourth chapter, I just simply lost interest.  Yes, I understand the author is in Finance but the constant and unending references to the fall of Bear Stears, Lehman and how a Hedgefund operates was chore to read. The title and cover was definitely misleading.

I found the Author mimicking people with Hispanic and Asian accents to be plain sophomoric and offensive. Of course the only female character in this book who was actually educated, smart and grounded was the Jewish character, Sasha Silver. All the rest were vapid WASPs out of touch with reality, Hispanic housekeepers and Asian manicurist who speak broken English. The one African American woman hails from the ghetto (of course) but winds up being educated in one of the finest private schools in Manhattan... on a scholarship, of course. Cliche anyone? Boring!

This book is full of cliches and boring lessons in finance.
4969636
I wanted to like it- I really did, I just couldn't get close to finishing it. Boring, slow, no connection to the characters- a big disappointment.
3326569
What the heck did I just read? This book was so boring. All of the "exciting" plot in the description, well that's as much plot as there is in the books too. The rest is multi-page descriptions of the rippling in the water created by trout. Are you here for character development? Out of luck. The protagonist starts out kind of ballsy and becomes shrill and one-note. Is she curious about how she travelled in time? Not really. Is she having any interesting dilemmas adjusting to the new environment? Not really. The romantic interest meanwhile starts out as the most annoying puppy dog of a character ever committed to page. He might as well not have a brain or tongue because his only use seems to be taking beatings for other people. And the only thing said about him is that he's handsome. Well it's a book, so that doesn't help me much. He then somehow turns into a dude completely willing to beat and rape the wife he's supposed to be madly in love with. And that my friend brings me to the last point. How is this relationship romantic? Girlfriend has an adoring, handsome British SPY husband at home. I don't care about the cheating like some reviewers, Jamie's hot and her husband won't be born for 200 years. But girl, pull it together, you do not fall in love with the 23 year old virgin meathead who beats you with a belt. Don't do it. Run away. Run, Claire, run. But then her inner monologue is so tediously boring that maybe they're meant for each other.
3398596
Quite boring actually. The first 100 pages held my interest but after 'the accident' it went downhill verrry quickly  nothing interesting happened at all. Seemed more like an homage to Africa than a story. Skip this one, her others are much better.
1525305
I have read all the books I can find on high functioning autistics because I've always been a bit suspicious about my socially inept father.  Once I started reading them, I became interested in how minds different from my own, very conventional, linear mind work.  I expected this book to be quite a treat.  Unfortunately, it is just plain dull. Only the first chapter is of any interest, when he talks about how numbers appear sensually to him.  The rest is a remarkably pedestrian account of his life.  Stupid of me to think that every autistic person would be another Temple Grandin.
282458
This book is so boring and tedious that I gave up about thirty percent of the way through.

The book starts out OK. The early part of the book has enough action to make it interesting. As it turns out, this is also the Amazon sample that you can get for free. What follows just drags.

The book centers around a female assassin or hire muscle. She's enhanced in various ways. This includes nano-machines in her body. One of the few interesting twists is a speculation about what happens when the nano-machines are pushed too far and start to take over the body. Except that no one would actually design nano-machines that did that.

The book is surprisingly boring. There's lots of digression that explains things and gets in the way of the plot. There are the hit girls various lovers, in various genders. The plot wanders around as the main character tries to find out what happened. All of this is oddly unsuccessful.

The writing is far below what you would find in anything written by William Gibson and makes Bruce Sterling look good by comparison.

Believe the one and two star reviews. Give this book a pass.
4892463
I have read a couple of other titles. They are readable though the element of mystery has never been very surprising, but overall they have been readable. This one was not. I think I got this one free, for that I am glad.
It was so boring. Myrtle Clover is told by her psychic friend Wanda that there would be a murder at an age old home 'Greener Pastures'. hence she and her sidekick Miles go over there to investigate. The day after their first visit someone does die. The administration of the home thinks it is a natural death, but one resident Ruby insists it is murder. There are a total of three-four people whom Myrtle interacts with in the home. She is so sure from the beginning that the murderer is one of them. But how is that even possible? There could be any number of reasons someone holds a grudge against someone else. But no! the entire book is about trips to the home, talking to suspect1, suspect 2, suspect 3 and then back. Somewhere in the middle of the book, you will figure out who the murderer is. The end is also predictable. (Spoiler alert) In all the books in this series I have read, Myrtle gets into trouble with the murderer in the end, usually trapped alone in a locked room. That is what happens here too.
2483326
The first two books in this series were decent, especially the first one.  I actually read those first two in order to get to this one after it won the Goodreads award, but holy cow was I let down.
It was just mind-numbingly boring.  The plot barely progressed at all as she tried to deepen the characters with pretty pointless flashbacks on their life.  Ughh....this is not how i wanted to start the new year.
2935683
I was really looking for an intriguing story that would keep me guessing, but this story just plodded along and became very tiresome. The characters were so flat as were the circumstances of the story. Boring. The only bright spot was the reminiscence of how the town Rudolph originally got it's name-that would have been worth reading.
3600138
I thought this book was just plain boring. The storyline has become less interesting than in the earler books of the series. Mr. McCloskey seems to be infatuated with showing how ridiculously alien his aliens are. There is no advancement of any plot at all. Enough with the vines already. This book will finally force me to leave the Parker Travels bandwagon.
491948
Having thoroughly enjoyed the previous Langdon novels, I was disappointed to find this one both boring and formulaic. The specific nature of the threat (and the MacGuffin) was revealed too early on, and the relentless arcane travelogue info about Florence and Venice would have been more palatable in a single chapter a la Melville's exegesis of the whaling industry in Moby Dick.