Fast read but marred by annoying characters/plot
934736
Karen and Mike Finch are upset and appalled when their seventeen-year-old daughter, Sophie, is brought home by the police. She was found drunk and wandering lost and confused around town. But Karen is also concerned and feels as if something is off: Sophie has no memories of most of the evening, and one of her friends, Amy, still hasn't returned home by morning. An agoraphobic thanks to an attack two years ago, the events with Sophie trigger Karen's intense anxiety. And soon, the Finch family will find themselves embroiled in a dark series of events that may threaten their own safety and sanity.

This was a strange novel. It definitely sets up with a well-done twist that hooks you. However, it then sort of slows down a bit, and it is burdened by some very strange and unbelievable storylines. For me, I found that I really didn't like or have a lot of sympathy for anyone in the Finch family, even with all they had been through. Sophie was a rather hateful teenager, who treated her parents with complete disdain, and she showed very little rationale in her decision-making. Karen's endless musings went on too much, and she was even worse in the decision area. And Mike was just hateful and rude. Sophie and her friends just seemed clueless and really hateful in their actions (without giving away too much).

Overall, the book was definitely engaging, and it certainly kept my attention; it was a fast read. Still, I found myself appalled by the characters' actions; people made some of the dumbest decisions and had some of the worst motivations in this novel, from the "bad guy" to the Finches to Sophie's friends. This made some of the story difficult to believe and buy. There's nothing really bad about it, I just found myself annoyed with the characters and frustrated by the story.
991247
I kinda liked the first book - interesting universe, a page turner, though the characters were mostly annoying and whiny.  The second book was still fairly action packed, but the main characters became even more annoying, with stupid motivations and idiotic decisions.  The third book was just awful (though a fast read, thank goodness).
4334267
The writing style is pleasant for the most part. But I found the "hero" Derek too annoying, immature and self-centered to really feel connected with what was going on. For instance, he comes cross country to a funeral and stays with his aunt who just suffered the loss, and whom he hardly ever sees but loves, then goes out for a one-night-stand with a man he just met. (Plus he was constantly described as smoking. Another turn-off.)

The mystery was ok in itself. I think the author would do well to retire Derek and use his talents to create stories around a more appealing character. Then I might try another one of his books. I don't plan to spend another 200 pages with Derek.
3201730
All of Me was a quick and fun read. I didn't have a problem with the hero, but the heroine, Sadie, bugged me. She's a victim, but she blames herself. Maybe there isn't a violent crime, but it is a crime...and a serious invasion of privacy. I have no idea how more people weren't supporting her. A whole town turned against Sadie? Not cool. I didn't like it. I didn't like her self-blaming attitude.

I DID like Sadie's friend, Donna. I'm hoping the next book will be about Donna. She's got a secret that I want to know (I have some guesses).

Decent sports-themed book, but Jen Bernard's firemen burn hotter.
2234414
I could only rate Jayhawk 3 stars,because even though I enjoyed the romance between Angela and Jay and it was developed very well,I detested most of the other characters in this story! The friend Janet whose ranch Angela goes to spend the summer at is no one I would want for a friend,and Janet, her near-rapist brother Thayne, and her father, and grandfather are all racist bigots,and make plenty of disgusting derogatory remarks about Indians.

So although the story and the mystery made for interesting reading,I just did not feel good while reading a book with so many characters that I hated. I was angry most of the time I was reading it!

The book is well-written and I have another of the author's here to try "The Return To Red Castle".
1015918
The story here is simple: a family gets more than they bargained for at a horror maze during their annual Halloween trip. If I were to rate this book based solely on the plot I'd give it 3 stars, as it's a quick read with a satisfying conclusion, and I thoroughly enjoyed the villain that Mr. Greene created. My main issues with this book are the writing and the rampant errors.

At least 25% of the book is devoted to describing, in detail, scenes of torture and gore. The author describes these scenes with overly used words and phrases like "reeled" and "shook him/her to the core". At one point, the same character is shaken to their core twice within a four sentence span. There were a fair number of instances where words like "of" and "the" were omitted (ex. He ran around corner), some switched word order (ex. He lifted his foot of off him), and my biggest issue, the use of "drug" instead of "dragged" (ex. He drug himself to the door).

There's a decent story to be had here if you can look past all these issues. For me, however, much like the characters in the book, the further I went into The Maze, the more I wanted out.
2853129
Enjoyed Harwin's first book but couldn't get past page 21 in this one.  The main character, Catherine, is just about the most unsociable person yet.  Her interaction with family and others borders on rude and obnoxious.  I enjoy a good mystery where the main character at least has a level of consideration but this just annoyed me from the get-go.
Sometimes I can get past this and give the book another 30 pages but this was too much for even me.  This is not to say I don't enjoy books where the primary character is rough around the edges and prickly but this was just annoying to the point of not wanting to put up with 272 pages just to see if it would get better.
2885420
A quick and easy summer-type read. Very light and enjoyable. So why only three stars? I like the book, I really do, but I HATE the main character! Lucy Norton in NO WAY deserves to be compared to Cinderella. The character of Lucy is incredibly annoying! And usually, I can look pass annoying characters but with Lucy, that was impossible. The thing I hate about her the most is that she has no back bone. The girl is as spineless as a squid and is a huge brat. I have no sympathy for her at all. None. Especially because a LOT of the things that were going wrong for her, she the power to prevent but like I said, the girl has no frikin back bone! She allows herself to be in the "misery" that she's in when in reality, she actually doesn't have it that bad at all but complains about it all the time. So I find it absolutely ridiculous that she compares herself to Cinderella. Like I stated earlier, I DO like the book and it was enjoyable despite the predictable plot. I liked that it was relatable to a lot teens out there and that the high school life depicted was quite realistic. But I can't stand how incredibly annoying and weak the main charcter was. Lucy Norton is pathetic.
1679998
I found this book very easy to read, the overall plot was quite good, and the book well written, which is a must. But the characters were something else.
Tara Logan wakes up in her neighbor's bed. She's naked, he's dead. What on earth has happened? She can't remember anything, so she flees across the street to her house and family.

Enter her family: husband Noah, daughter Rosie, son Spencer and sister Lisa. Welcome to some of the most unrelatable book characters you've met. The husband is a cheater and the daughter is a born liar and a stalker. The son is quite nice, but don't get me started on the sister. You've also got the nosy, nasty neighbors, another stalker/weird character in Mikey, Tara's coworker and a detective that gives information to the suspects family

I know I don't have to like the characters, but if you really hate them (and I hated Rosie), then half of the enjoyment for the book is gone. For me, this is the kind of book that you literally devour only to finish it and realize some things didn't add up.

I received an ARC if this book in exchange for an honest review.
2802228
I had high hopes for this book; the cover is captivating and it seemed like a great concept for a romance novel. It came up short, though.
Everything that was happening was expected. I wanted to throw my Kindle across the room at how ridiculous some parts were. It seemed like I was reading a published fanfiction where something bad happens every time the main character is happy.
It was a cute story, but very redundant and obnoxious. I hated reading over and over again about how happy someone once was or how much someone missed that one person. It took away from the plot when all the main character did was wallow in self misery.
I would recommend this book if you enjoy a predictable love story.
218420
Let me start off by saying that I liked this book. It was a fun and quick read (I finished it in a day), and some of the scenes made me laugh out loud.

However, the character of Olivia was tiresome. I get that she considers herself a spinster at the ripe old age of 27 (although that was considered old back then), and I understand her desire to never marry. However, when it becomes obvious that she has feelings for Nathaniel, and he for her, and she still continues to act haughty (and spoiled), it gets old. I can't honestly say if I were Nathaniel that I would have kept perusing her. Then, for a moment let us consider the whole "proposition" that she gives Nathaniel. She doesn't want to marry him, but she wants him to court her. She wants that much at least. Oh, and she wants him to have sex with her. The no strings attached kind that you know.. didn't happen in Regency England between people of respectable families.

Another thing that bothered me about this book is the way the dialog would suddenly switch to a more "modern" way of speaking, and the way the actions of the characters were completely inappropriate given the time period. While some actions were considered "appropriate" for the main character, they were not for the time period, and regardless of her antics, she would not have been allowed by her family to get away with them.

Aside from being a stubborn pain in the arse, Olivia has an abysmal fashion sense, which I only bring up because her "hideous" fashion choices were more a topic in the book that her supposed love for astronomy.

The one started off strong, but lost momentum about half way through. I think if more attention had been paid to the pair building a friendship and their resulting courtship, it would have made for a more sustainable book.
1267658
A little too loose with names and other story plots we are familiar with, but this was certainly an interesting read. SPOILER ALERT, the fact that she is not honest about Rafe's fianc.... It becomes unbelievable and annoying and makes the main character come off as stupid. She needs to fix that in the next book....it's the kind of annoying spin ND intrigue technique that mostly just irritates the readers. I was looking forward to the second book until that happened. I just rolled my eyes, hopefully it changes quickly in the next book. With the given storyline, no one would have doubted she was telling the truth, and concealing it was not at all believable.
3552588
Since this series of books (Promises, Parts 1,2,3 and now 4) can be read independently from each other without much, if any, confusion about characters or their associations with one another, I happened to read books 2 and 3 first. I really enjoyed them and gave them  5 star ratings. However, if I had read this book (Part1) first, I doubt that I would have continued on with the series. The incredible speed in which the author has two characters fall in love is unbelievable and annoying. Vaughan comes home from college and immediately seduces his father's business partner whom he has had a crush on since high school. No "getting to know you" time. Just jump right into an affair (with his father's blessing.) Wouldn't happen. Also, the way Vaughan is written - the words he speaks and the actions he exhibits - make him sound like an arrogant, snide, slightly effeminate gay man (a bitchy queen) even though he was supposed to be big and brawny and masculine. But, then later he's written as a mature, butch, power top. Very contradictory.  The terms of endearment used by Vaughan were also annoying to me. He kept referring to Duke as "sweetheart". First, they had only been together for a couple days and Vaughan was using these endearments. That, to me, sounded way too clingy and creepy for a new relationship. Maybe after dating a month, or so, you might refer to your partner as "Babe", but not right away. That seemed too controlling and emasculating to me. Also, there were many typos and grammar mistakes in addition to incongruities that were annoying. For instance, In Book 1, Duke is described as 49 years old. In Book 2, the author states that Duke and Quick are in their early forties. Quick's son, Vaughan, is 31 years old in Book 1. If the older fellows are in their early 40's, there is no possibility that Quick's son could be 31 years old! Another odd thing about Vaughan is that in Book 1, at the age of 31, he just passed his Bar Exam to become a lawyer. The story states that he got a graduates degree after his undergrad. (He'd be about 23 years old at that time.)Then he went on to law school (which takes 3-4 years of additional schooling). So that should make Vaughan about 27 years old, not 31! What was he doing for 4 years???  The author just didn't appear to cross-check her character's backstories. I don't know if the author felt that if her characters were close to 50 years old that they wouldn't be appealing so she wrote them younger, but still mature, in the later books, or not. If you do read this book, know that the following books will contradict some of the stuff you read, but the stories get better as the writer develops their lives.
4824205
This book follows the classic coming-of-age model, with a few twists. That's the part I liked. Unfortunately there were some gaping holes in the plot logic, and some annoying character/plot twists designed to. Keep characters in the story..no spoiler but by way of example...you killed my family..burned my village..and when I defeat you and you are at my mercy I leave you unharmed so you can torture me in later scenes. I'm ok with evil characters acting as foils to the hero but the logic gaps got to be very annoying after a while...as did the failure of the protagonists to grow ie they are still moody children at the end of book 2
1285403
The writing flowed nicely; the pace was quick; the violence was unnerving. Some scenarios seemed rather unbelievable, such as the killer getting so close to Erica as to be able to slip a note in her pocket without her knowledge or when she's at home she never closes her curtains so anyone can see what's she's doing. She's a police detective--is she that unaware of her surroundings?
Erica's character seemed too harsh for my taste. Obviously she's flawed and suffering, but couldn't the author have his main character a little less intense and a lot more likeable? Also, a pet peeve of mine is the overuse of the "F" word. Even if so many people do actually speak that way anymore, can't the author limit his use?.  We could still get the idea.
634309
Easy, fast story. Characters blended together nicely. Underlying "mystery" woven throughout this book (and into the remaining books of the series) was underdeveloped and didn't instill enough reader interest to want to continue the series because of the mystery. Overall, this book was an entertaining read, but offered nothing original in this plot line. I wouldn't recommend this book unless it was on sale (when I bought this it was part of the a bonus set of the series for $.99).
1985924
This was one of the books I read after reading SEP's Breathing Room. I loved that book, but this one left me alternately cold or angry. I hated the 'baby-fever' aspect of the story (she had so much going for her, and while she didn't feel she needed a man to complete her life, she felt she needed a baby?), I HATED Cal's indignation when he found out what was going on (he had sex twice with a woman he thought was a stripper but then has the gall to suggest that He was raped somehow? I saw red.) The story also had way too many inconsistencies in character and plot and they weren't just annoying, they were also vaguely misogynistic. A smart physicist humiliates herself by posing as a high-paid stripper? Getting bullied by a man to get married in this day and age? The list just went on and on. I was completely disgusted by his he-man antics mixed with modern age entitlement-- on both sides actually. I was too repulsed by both characters to enjoy some of the side stories. I did like Cal's brothers though. All in all, seriously disliked this book and wished I'd bought it used for 2 bucks instead of new on Amazon for 8 plus shipping. Despite all that, I still really appreciated SEP's way with dialogue, and I found some bits of it very funny. Too bad the premise and the characters killed it for me.