The most egregious case of insta-love I've read maybe ever.
920215
Does anyone else remember the movie THE FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR? It was a Disney movie from the 1980's about a kid who comes home one day to discover that he's unknowingly been missing for years without having aged a day while his family and friends have all gotten older.  He has no memory of the missing time and ends up on the run from the authorities in a UFO.  I loved that movie as a kid and since the premise for THE TAKING was nearly identical (and because I really enjoyed Derting's THE BODY FINDER), I thought THE TAKING would be a home run.

Sadly, no.

The most believable thing about a book involving aliens shouldn't be the aliens, but it was.  Nothing made a whole lot of sense in THE TAKING.  After being missing for 5 years and having no memory of that time, no one thinks to have any medical tests done on Kyra. No one thinks it's odd that she hasn't aged a day, and in fact they don't even notice it until well into the book at a routine dentist appointment.  No authorities are called to interview or investigate. No reporters show up or call  for interviews.  No one even asks her about it.  Her family goes back to life as normal pretty much the next day, leaving Kyra to take off without notice when ever she wants (she comes home at night and everyone has already gone to bed!). It all seemed so ludicrous that people would act so casually after a missing child returns after five years-- especially since they assumed she was dead!

On top of that, the romance. Oh, the romance. It was the most egregious case of insta-love I've read maybe ever. Kyra was head over heels, we're-practically-planning-our-wedding in love with Austin one day, the next day--five years later for everyone else--she spots Austin's now 17 year old brother, Tyler, and gets all swoony. Within a week--a week!--they are using the L-word.  It was insane. I kept wishing Derting would have just kept the same boyfriend and had them struggle with overcoming the age difference and missing years instead of switching one brother for another in such a short period of time but expecting the reader to buy in to a new supposed love. Kyra literally went from crazy in love with one to crazy in love with the other in five days without any downtime or real heartbreak.

The aliens and mystery about why they took Kyra and then returned her, the others they have taken, and the changes wrought in these returned people is all very interesting and suspenseful. But there were so many frustrating things about THE TAKING that defy credulity.  The aliens I buy, it's all the humans that are unbelievable in this book.
4130109
*** May contain SPOILERS***

Very unrealistic for what is supposed to be a historical romance novel. In the opening, you find out that a young virgin woman is painting erotic scenes with no idea of how a man looks beneath the clothes. She is thrown into her sister's place and married to the unfeeling man her sister was betrothed to. In the first month of being married, she is publicly whipped and kept in chains (wrists, ankles, and neck). Even after they finally have their first night together as husband and wife, the man even says that nothing has changed.

A woman would have to be wrong in the head to forgive public whipping, public humiliation via a month's worth of being chained (as a slave would be), and being used by her family. Not only does she do what she can to save her family, she is used by them over and over again. She's "in love" with her abusive husband, despite the fact that he never tells her that he loves her and he never truly apologizes for his past actions. In addition to this, all he does claim is that she was all he could think of for the past few months... no mention of love, only lust. Since when did lust = love?

I'm sorry, but it's already enough of a problem that women can never make themselves leave their abusive and humiliating husbands... Now, you're trying to make a "romance" out of it? In no way was this a "romance" but more of a person suffering from some sadistic form of Stockholm's syndrome.

This is the first work that I've read from this author. Supposedly, her other works are supposed to be good, but this one novel spoiled the rest for me... I'm not into marital abuse, unfounded accusations, lack of realistic declarations of a husband finally in love with his wife, and a man who cannot admit that he is wrong. I would've given this "romance" zero stars if I had the chance.
2951462
I was given a copy of this book by a friend back in November because, after all, it was THE book du jour and she was appalled I hadn't heard of it, much less read it cover to cover multiple times. I picked it up one night and made it through about 10 pages before I threw it to the floor in disgust. The author's style of capitalizing nouns randomly, repeating things over and over, and writing in stilted sentences drove me nuts. Plus, there was a general undertone of self-aggrandizement I didn't care for. The book got kicked under the bed and I didn't think about it again until the stories broke this week about how the author had fabricated almost everything in the book. I hauled my copy back out, brushed off the dust bunnies, and thumbed through it some more (I still couldn't read it all the way through, the style was literally giving me a headache), and thought: the real question is, why did Oprah or anyone else ever think this crap was true?

Even as fiction the book beggars belief, but as non-fiction it seems laughable to me that anyone would find Frey's anecdotes even somewhat credible. Have you ever seen anyone who was covered in biohazardous bodily fluids and bleeding freely from an active wound be allowed to board a plane? How many people do you think could be arrested for a list of crimes as long as your arm, including crack possession, and get off with a three-month sentence in a county jail? It just seemed beyond believability for me. Everything seemed hyperdramatized, and I also couldn't figure out how this guy had managed to do such a 180 turnaround on his life in such a short amount of time. That alone would have made me suspect the author's veracity.

Even as a work of fiction, I think this book is submediocre. Granted, I am not an addict (although I have known real-life addicts), but I really did fail to see how the story was uplifting or empowering in any way. It may sound strange, but in many ways I was reminded of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, which was infinitely better written stylistically but the same kind of book - here are some overdramatized, brutally written anecdotes that will totally shock you! Oh, wait, here's some more! Look, here's some REALLY bad stuff! See how disgusting and shocking I can be? Aren't I cool? The main difference being, of course, that Ellis' book was a work of fiction and billed as such, and Frey's wasn't.

I don't really have a sense of moral outrage that Frey got away with passing this stuff off as real life. As P.T. Barnum said, there's a sucker born every minute, and I have to give Frey props for convincing his publishers (and Oprah) that this stuff was all real. As I said, that anyone ever thought these anecdotes were even based in reality is the real thing to puzzle over. I think in the case of the Oprah staffers who started frothing at the mouth over the book, there was probably a fair amount of naivete about what real addiction is like, and they probably got sucked into the melodrama so fast they forgot to turn their thinking caps on. But the book should have been billed as nonfiction, all the same. (Although now reports are coming out that Frey shopped the book to many publishers as fiction and only had success getting it published when he started passing it off as a memoir, so I guess maybe he wouldn't have sold as many copies if he had billed the book appropriately.)

In any case, if someone read the book, liked it, got some kind of positive message out of it, they shouldn't feel bad about it being fabricated. I have gotten many uplifting messages out of fiction books and the fact that the books were fiction didn't make much difference, it was the difference the books made in my life that really mattered. If you haven't read the book, and want to just for curiosity's sake, do it, but don't expect any kind of revelatory experience.
4617495
This story line is so overdone it's ridiculous. We start with the sweet, virginal heroine who is afraid to let a man into her heart. Next, add the drinking, partying manwhore rock star. Finally, throw them together for an extended period of time in the same tour bus through very contrived (though not as contrived as "Music of the Heart")circumstances. The heroine wins over the band mates so that they adore as a sister, instead of being irritated by her constant presence in their close quarters. The hero behaves despicably in front of the heroine, but they also share moments of sweetness wherein she begins to see the "real" man beneath the rock star veneer. They fall in love, but are both afraid to admit it. Drama and angst ensues. All you have to do is fill in the names and the cities and come up with a cool band name and the story writes itself. So glad I only paid $.99 for this tripe. That same day I downloaded several free books that were substantially better. They probably aren't free any longer, but try "Bet in the Dark", "Too Fast", "Don't Lie to Me" and "Save".

I will not be reading the next installment in the FireNine series.
3673697
Here is a excerpt from the first page of this fantastic jewel of literature:
"The guys and I are walking through campus before practice, about to watch the girls on the track team do their thang, when I spot @$$. See, when ya boy spots @$$, I be on it."

& it only gets more pleasant from there. This nice gentleman refers to this young lady as a "b1tch" several times in his thoughts and then demands for her to give him her phone so he can put his number in it. I skipped ahead for the young ladies point of view of the same exact story with the same dialogue, and to my surprise she is 100% ok with this treatment because he's the good looking quarterback with lots of drugs. As the story progresses you learn about his two other women and how he juggles them all. But what is dignity when you are with a hot guy. right?

I only downloaded this story because it was free and it was under the romance category. I was expecting it to be a terrible but bearable novel. I knew it was a love triangle (quadrangle?) after reading the blurb. I thought Rashard would realize the the err of his playboy ways and settle down with one of the girls and live happily and monogamously ever after. He might. I don't know. Because as soon as I saw the way he treated women like meat I stopped reading. The title of the story is "Addicted to Him." What is so addicting about a jerk jock with terrible grammar?

Ladies, if you respect yourselves, don't read this garbage. This book is filthy, derogatory, sexist, and a eye sore to those of us who actually like romance stories and reading in general. I really cannot emphasize enough the disgust I have with this story and its author.

Ms. King would you be proud to let your children read this? Would you like it if a man talked to your daughter in the way Rashard talks to his "women?" I certainly hope not.
3462422
This story spans about 20ish years. You first meet Eva and Deuce while they are visiting their respective fathers in jail. You're brought into their world pretty much immediately. You are also introduced to the fact that there is an 18 year age gap, being that she is 5 and he is 23 when they first met. Yes, I will wholeheartedly say that reading that and knowing that this was going to be a love story made me cringe and say quite a few internal "eewww"s. They meet up a couple of times in the interim years until their next major meeting when she is 16 and he is 34 (oh and married with children might I add). Also, in the interim you're brought a little bit deeper into her life, namely you're introduced to a little psychopath in the making, also known as Frankie. He is the son of a fellow biker who was killed in the "line of duty" who Eva's father took in. He immediately becomes entirely dependent on Eva and extremely overprotective of her. He's also insanely violent - insane being the operative word here. But back to Deuce and Eva's second meeting. Let's just say daddy- head of the Silver Demons Motorcycle Club- was not particularly pleased with Deuce's- head of the Hell's Horsemen Motorcycle Club- behavior. Doesn't end pretty. Which is why it is another two years before they see each other, and this time is entirely by pure stupid luck.

And this sets up the ulcer creating events that take place going forward. It pretty much all goes to hell in a hand basket after this point. They meet up again- it's awesome, you begin to really fall in love with their love story, root for them and BOOM instance #1 for why I wanted to virtually castrate Deuce. It's pretty much a re-occuring theme throughout the book. He doesn't know how to keep it in his pants.

"I was not going to cry. Nope. Just because he wasn't the man I'd thought he was didn't mean I was going to cry. It was my own fault, putting him on some kind of pedestal when in reality he was just another biker, who lies, cheats, and steals and who can't resist slutty club ass."

This, pretty effectually, pushes her into the arms of the now full fledged psychopath Frankie. They actually get married. And Frankie, becomes psychotically obsessed with her. Now, you get angry at Deuce and at times you even hate Deuce, but Frankie scares you. He does things that make you sick. And when Deuce's club has a confrontation with Eva's club to retaliate against Frankie for some bit o'crazy he pulled you see just how far Frankie is willing to go to keep Eva. And this sets off a whole new set of obstacles and events Deuce and Eva have to get through. I could compare pretty much the last 30-ish percent of this book to attempting to navigate through a minefield. It was also like a train wreck, in which you just couldn't take your eyes off of it. They hate each other and violence ensues. Then they love each other and try to be happy. Then they're not and hospitals become involved. And throughout this there are a few more instances where virtual castration would've been warranted. I can't go into much detail, hence the vagueness.

Oh and on a side note: I loved Eva's BFF Kami. Definitely a much needed comic relief.

This book sucks you in, beats you up, chews on you a little bit before spitting you out and then attempts to haphazardly put you back together again. I say haphazardly because you still feel lingering effects even after this book is finished. The fact that I read this book nearly a month ago and I'm still reeling is the reason I gave it 4 stars. Love it (like I did) or hate it, it did something to you and touched you in a way that no book before this really has.
4729849
I have absolutely dreaded writing this review because I have no desire to think of this book for another second.  Right out of the gate this book was hard on one of my biggest pet-peeves: chicks obsessed with one dude for a ridiculously long time.  Allie, 30, has lusted after Mick since was 16half her life! and now that shes back in the Big Easy shes determined to finally make him hers. Forever.  And her master plan to do so is to manipulate him into doing a scene at the local BDSM club. Good call crazy.

So this is how my reading experience with this book went: There was a LOT of eye rolling, sounds of disgust and an overabundance of frustration and annoyance. I had to take day+ long breaks at pages 18, 45 and 60 simply because I was so irritated and couldn't force myself to continue. I gave up after 60 pages; then after two days off I decided to skip to the sex scenes to see if MAYBE the molasses-like pace would pay off. Nope. After three terrible scenes I tapped out. I didn't finish it. I couldnt.

The first break I took (after only a dozen and a half pages) was because I had to *write down* all the issues I had just with the first chapter. The obsession was a big one, EVERY thought in her head or thing she did she somehow tied to Mick. She repeatedly gets herself off while calling his name, or (more pathetically) saying For you Mick, for you only for you Mick. Are. You. Freakin' Serious?!! My eyes rolled back so hard I had a headache for three days! Ugh!! She then cons their mutual friend Jamie into helping her convince Mick to scene with her, which I found beyond cowardly, under-handed and pitiful. A big way that she does this is by mentioning knowing about their kink and then informing him of hers but she does it in a way that makes it sound like Mick is the only reason she got into it in the first place (say hello to her friend 'desperation').

By the time I called it quits her name had become synonymous with pathetic.  My issues weren't just with her though. Mick is just completely unlikable (*thinks of all kinds of adjectives amazon won't allow me to use*). He treats Allie like a child, and goes on and on about his demons and darkness in a way that you think its some big thing its not. Its just him throwing a prolonged Pity Party and being a jerk-off.  The most likable character is Jamie. How sad is that? The whole time reading it I really didn't give a rip if they ended up together or not. The rope scenes were almost clinically done (not like in a Cherise Sinclair book where you literally are flush yet covered with goosebumps). I ended up skimming hot sexy BDSM scenes thinking yeah yeah, uh huh, get on with it already. There was NO connection, NO build up, NO satisfaction in those scenes at all.

There wasn't a single thing redeeming about this book reallyat least to the point I made it, and a reader shouldnt have to struggle through a hundred pages to get to the plot, the point or the good stuff. It was just terrible all the way around.
401042
I don't understand how books like these are so raved about. I just don't get it. I haven't read Fifty Shades of Grey, but when I told a friend about this book, she told me, "That's just like Fifty Shades!" So now I really have no motivation whatsoever to read it. First off, I don't mind romance novels. I like them as long as it's a good story, believable characters, plot, etc. But this story was ridiculous. How many times can the characters go on and on about how perfect the other is? How many times do they have to say "I love you" in one sitting or in bed?

This book was not for me whatever because it was so cliche, repetitive, and overall, ridiculous. The only reason I am not giving it 1 star is that it was written okay (no grammatical errors, it flowed, etc.). But if you like overly sappy love stories with some steamy scenes, by all means, read this book. If that's not your scene, avoid it like the plague.
3774062
After the first few pages, I had to actually go back to the cover to make sure this book wasn't a spoof.  I find the author's psychiatric evaluation of both Amanda and Raffele to be absurd.  He reaches FAR into some made up sense of rage and childhood scarring to create a motive.  I don't even know which example to choose, they are all beyond intelligent rationalization. From Amanda holding a "peace" sign up in a picture (most kids and even some adults attempt to look "cool" by doing this, to her sudden ability to become a murderer with a man she just met, is baffling.  There is no prior history of violence in either of their backgrounds, and to make up this long fictional story based on a subjective analysis of both Amanda and Raffelle's childhood experiences, without even meeting them or doing the professional testing to form such conclusions, is ridiculous and downright unethical.  There was no DNA in Meredith's room from either of them.  It is impossible to clean away invisible DNA, and from the story that the author tells, there is NO WAY they could have not left traces of their presence.  This book lacks any scientific proof indicating their involvement.  It is just a wildly imaginative story.  I feel dumber after wasting my time reading this tabloid garbage.  Skip this book if you want to read a serious, fact based analysis.  It is pure fiction, nothing more.
4257458
I hate it when the author has 2 people meet and BAM ......OMG I'm in love and I can't live without you.  I mean...what's the fun in that? Very juvenile....I couldn't concentrate at all on this book and found myself literally rolling my eyes while reading it.
3894111
The mind-blowing stupidity of the book's all-American happy ending destroys what could have been a truly wonderful book. As a reader, I feel a great sense of frustration to have stuck with this book -- indeed read it in a few short, nail-biting sessions -- only to have it all blow in my face. I have no words to express the disgust I felt at the end. Not only did Scottoline sabotage her own book, but she insults the readers' intelligence and sends young people the message that Jake's criminal behavior, as well as that of the entire family, can be condoned. Who does Scottoline think she's kidding? Although I had reservations about the credibility of the plot all along, I  impressed with the pace of the book and masterful way in which the author builds up the suspense and the snowballing consequences of lying. This could have been used to send a powerful message about personal responsibility. Instead, everyone is absolved of call responsibility at the end and the reader is left stunned and shocked. Did Scottoline actually think she created a LIKABLE character in Jake, for whom the readers would  root at the end?! Unreal. Again, that insults her readers' intelligence and our sense of right and wrong, to which she alludes throughout the book. The author more than anyone should have considered her own advice in sticking to that moral compass. There's nothing likable about this family, and there's no way to absolve any of them of their crimes because they love each other. Come to think of it, the book cover insidiously tries to plant that into our minds. "Look how much they love each other." No they don't. The kind of behavior described in the book is not the result of love but fear and selfishness. I could even forgive (even if not condone) the initial desire to run away from the scene. You panic. It happens, although not to the best of us. But that's one moment in time. When things snowball and get out of control, every decent person in the world would have faced up to their actions. Somewhere along the way they would have said "WHOA!" Jake watched as his own son's life was being destroyed. Is that love? Ryan was willing to turn himself in and Jake stopped him, nearly driving his son to suicide. That's love? Diverting other people's funds to pay a blackmailer to cover up criminal behavior .... that's supposed to be an act of LOVE? And we're supposed to be happy at the end for this family with no conscience whatsoever? Lisa Scottoline, if you're reading this review, please have more respect for your readers' intelligence and ability to judge for themselves.
3209761
In my and my girlfriends' experience, Manhattan men tend to multiply a girl's "feelings" (for lack of a better word) towards them times a million. You sleep with a guy, he assumes you're in love with him; you tell a man you were disappointed he didn't do something he said he would, he thinks you want a commitment; you tell him "I like you" and he translates this as "I want to have your children." I have long described this as Male Egos Run Amok (MERA).

But even taking MERA into account, Marin is insane. He's quite simply too ugly, too poor, too unsuccessful and way too lame to be a cad. By trying to act like one, he only makes the reader cringe.

He disparages women for wearing the same outfit twice, not watching television or expecting him to act like a man as opposed to a teenager, as if any of these actions were flaws or symptoms of insanity ("crazy" is Marin's favorite way to describe a woman; that way he acts like a jerk and blames her.) In the meantime, no one in the book comes across worse than he does. Shallow. Misogynist. Immature. Coward. Hypocrite. Wimp... I could go on for several pages.

If I were him, I'd be so embarrassed by this book I would buy every single copy and burn them. Then again, that would take a decent person who's in touch with reality, and Marin is clearly not that man.
1005426
I really wanted to like this book since my granddaughter loaned it to me...but I just didn't. She told me I might not as I tend to not like the "instant love" kind of story, but it was more than that. I don't want to tell the story here, but it involves a race of not quite humans who will some time immediately imprint on another, called their Significant. This is much like some stories where there is an instant bond between soulmates. But this is different. Soon after this bonding both will develop some kind of power and with each it is something special to them. They very seldom bond with a human, but this story is about a human girl and the boy who becomes her Significant. The characters are older teens, she is graduating from high school and he is in college.

So what did I not like about the book? First the bonding is not an instant falling in love exactly - it very much involves physical touching. They must be together or they will die. They do not even know each other and feel this attraction. Because a member of a rival clan has the power to enter dreams and actually do harm, this means that they must sleep touching one another. Okay, so no sex, but still - strong physical attraction and the touch thing? Can't be apart for even a day without being physically sick?

I found Maggie's father totally unbelievable. He is almost catatonic after his wife leaves him and has been that way for I think 8 months. He pays no attention to his daughter at all. Suddenly when she gets a boyfriend he wakes up and is the ideal dad, concerned about the boyfriend thing, but just totally understanding of this sudden love of hers. Caleb's family loves her to death for reasons in the story, but that is kind of over the top too.

I think the thing that bothered me the most (well, maybe not the most but I will get to that) was the constant "I love you" and "I love you more" stuff from these two who had no choice whether to love each other or even like each other except for this very physical thing. The mushy stuff really gets old fast.

Which leads me to one other thing - the book is full of typos, incomplete sentences, punctuation that made me go back to figure out whether the person said this or just thought it. It seriously needs editing, and that along with the ridiculous I love you stuff made it very difficult to read. I love many YA supernatural books, but this one just had too many flaws.

Overall I just thought it was poorly written and sickly sweet - especially for two people who don't even know each other. But I did love the other book my granddaughter loaned to me. We can't agree on everything. LOL
107744
I don't think I have ever read a more unlikable heroine in a book.  Ever.  She is the woman you pray your son never falls for, unless you would like to add a raging,spiteful alcoholic to the family.  The whole book was bewildering.  Why in the world would such a nice guy put up with such abuse?  Is the sex really worth getting torn to emotional shreds every time your girlfriend has a bad day?  The whole time I was just yelling 'run, Diesel, run'.  This is definitely a HFN instead of a HEA.
3442745
This story has perhaps the most awful, horrible, selfish, mean, and cruel hero I've read in a long time. I'd heard such good things about Julia Quinn, so I was eager to read this book, and in the first couple of chapters all was going swimmingly, and then--BOOM. Horrid horrid selfish mean cruel Turner makes his horridness manifest. Apparently Turner's odious character is excusable because he married a Very Bad Woman Who Crushed His Soul Before Conveniently Dying, and he's been struggling to survive ever since.  Delightful. That's not a flimsy excuse for cruelty and selfishness AT ALL.

Poor Miranda Cheever. She's the heroine of this farce, and I feel so bad for her. She seems very likable and sweet, so it boggles my mind that she continues to love this pathetic excuse for a romance hero after he insults her, humiliates her, bosses her around, and tortures her. Wow, what a wonderful romance! I'm so glad I read this travesty!

There are a few good things about this novel: the secondary characters are quite fun, and the dialogue is good when it's not composed of Turner "verbally sparring" with poor Miranda (read: goading, harassing and bullying her).

Other than that, there is nothing good about this book. The only way this book could have been redeemed is if Turner is run over by a curricle on the last page of the book and dies immediately, leaving Miranda to find a man who actually treats her well. Now THAT'S a book I'd enjoy.

Summation: if you have a high tolerance for heroes who are not kind-hearted and make the heroine cry, then you probably will not be bothered by this book. If you have a low tolerance, avoid this novel at all costs.
3287133
Truly, I don't understand how some books make it out into the world, and this is one of them. Every action that happened could be seen coming from a mile away, *except* for the one sex scene in the book which happened early on in the book, and was so bizarrely full of forced anger and "revenge" it's not enjoyable. I'm inclined to think that the author had a stack of all her favorite romance novels next to her when she wrote this, closed her eyes and pointed- and copied the line she touched into her own book. Nothing felt original; adding a vampire that has real roots in history does nothing to make the work more plausible. The cherry on top was the presence of endless typos, which made reading irritating. Was it even proofread once?
Why did I finish it? I dunno. Wish I hadn't! I Definitely will not read this writer again. I'm left with the impression that Ms. Winters has no real passion for writing, but is simply trying to make a buck in a genre that is exploding in popularity.
1743105
I wonder sometimes what the hell is wrong with me?!! I had this book recommended to me by a friend and I can honestly say I regret reading it. I absolutely hate cheating in stories. And in this story, that's what he did...multiple times over the years. Not once did I feel he had redeemed himself in any way - he was just an arrogant bastard who used her feelings for him to get what he wanted. I thought Viola deserved better and couldn't understand why she forgave him, like it was partly her fault. I'm a huge fan of angst and drama, but I have to feel like the hero deserves to be forgiven. I want the heroine to feel like she deserves better and makes her hero work his arse off to get back into her good graces. I can't even begin to tell you how much it annoys me to read about heroines who are so weak-willed that they put up with crap over and over again. I felt like smashing my kindle against the wall when she forgave him so quickly.