I wanted to like it...
935026
I really wanted to like this decaf blend, but honestly I thought the taste was awful. J is rated high, and thats why I decided to try it, especially because its swiss water decaf. Thats basically the only reason its getting two stars from me. I hate leaving negative reviews, but the flavor is like how others described it, as more of a donut shop coffee. I brewed it stronger but it leaves a bitter and slightly metallic flavor on your pallet. I would be willing to try their other roasts, but this one in my opinion was just not good. Maybe it was just this bag, I don't know.
1350424
I really wanted to like it, but since the attenpted murder I just can't. Let me start from the beginning. I bought this bike to ride to work. I didn't want anything really fancy or expensive, so I did some window shopping and some research and found this "gem". It was totted as an inexpensive, sturdy, bike. I bought it and put it together. Needless to say the first ride I took, ended with the chains skipping the gears and me on asfault. I took it to my local bike shop. They laughing at me and said it is what it is, a piece of crap, but they would look it over. 60 bucks later, the thing still tries to kill me when im throwin out the torque, but it isn't as bad as it could be i guess.
1228404
I wanted to like it, I thought it was a good premise. But the characters didn't seem three dimensional. I really could not get into it.
1177311
When I ordered this book, I really wanted to like it. The writer is from Northampton, MA., a familiar place to me where both I and my daughter went to school there at Smith College, a generation apart. The book is beautifully printed and presented. The long bibliography (really a library) of books by authors who appear in the narrative is impressive. One feels that you could go on Amazon and buy almost all of them "used" and set them up in a room of our own to contemplate how to live more slowly and to savor the environs of our life including the outdoors.

Despite the beautiful physical presentation of the book and listing of its resources, I found that the author's personal interjections about her failed and much-mourned relationship with her former partner really got in the way. It's almost as though the author found the book as an outlet for her purpose in life in order to reconcile her loneliness and pain from that separation. That deeply personal aspect that threads through the book might deepen the reading experience for some. But, unfortunately, it did not for me.
4540534
So, let me preface this by saying that I purchased this book at Barnes & Noble, not on Amazon's website (thus the absence of the "verified purchase" indicator).

I really wanted to like this book. I really, really did. It was literarily pretty sound (except in those instances when symbols and other literary devices were overtly explained to the reader) and it was pretty well thought-out. However, I perhaps should have considered the snippets on the front cover and inside cover to be more of an indicator of the book itself. One of them called it a "parable," which is apt. I read this book in a few days, and it's 497 pages long. It was riveting throughout. But it left me feeling satisfied, and if you want a possible spoiler, skip to the next paragraph to see why.

The ending was pretty much the opposite of what I wanted. I spent the whole novel waiting for the climactic ending, with Mae finally assuming and fulfilling her role as protagonist. So when that didn't happen, I felt my love of this novel wither and crumble away, into a pile of ash similar to the feces of The Circle's deep-sea shark. I realize that the book is meant to be a parable, and that books don't always have to have happy endings (in fact, some of my favorites are those that do not). But this one, to me, felt like a personal affront, one that could have been avoided, could have served as the suggestive part of this parable.
3380443
I really wanted to like it more than I did.  Every so often I end up picking a book on it's cover, and I generally am disappointed when I do.  I liked the book fine, there were parts that it moved so slowly and then other times it seemed very pressured.  For me there wasn't a very fluid feeling and some parts were disjointed.  I'm giving it 4 stars because I did like it but there's no love there for me, and I'm wishing I'd just waited for the paperback.
3377555
I was really hoping to like this book, but unfortunately it wasn't for me.  I couldn't finish it---I just kept confusing the different characters and subplots.  Part of my problem was that I could only read it in fits and starts---twenty minutes here, fifteen minutes there, an hour here, and then a day or two missed.  And the problem with that is that this book is full of endless complex and nuanced characters, each with his or her own little important peccadilloes, and thus really does require focus and dedication.  I kept mixing people up, forgetting who was who, and what their different roles and traits were.

What would have helped me is this:  a list of each character with a little explanatory paragraph about who they are, what their characteristics are, and what their role is.  Also, a glossary of terms might have helped, because half the time I didn't know what was really going on.

Of course, had I devoted a lot more conscious energy to the book, and read it in a much more serious and dedicated way---as I'm sure many people do---I'm sure I could have sorted this out, and probably would have loved the book, but my reasons for reading it were different.  I read it as relaxation material---nothing requiring much from me.  Alas!
4797814
I wanted to like it. I wanted to finish it, but it just wasn't engaging enough, and given the premise, that surprises the life out of me. Great premise! I shouldn't have been able to put this thing down. It had a lot of cute things going on in this crazy world, but we are told about them more than showed. That would have been fine if everything else jelled, but it didn't.

I read 100 pages and then quit. Not much happened within those pages, at least, not enough to keep me from giving up on it. There are thousands of books I have to get to and I can't waste precious time reading something that isn't really capturing my attention. It takes a real talented writer to pen a good, decent, PI mystery and I guess KJA is not one of them. I'm glad I got this free.
3737064
I really, really wanted to like this. But the writing just wasn't there.
3270891
I really wanted to like this a lot. I enjoyed Twilight, even though I don't consider it great literature or the best writing. It was enthralling, still! And I liked the Host even better. I definitely commend Stephenie Meyer for trying a new genre and branching out--I find it annoying when successful authors are unable to come up with new ideas or break away from their success story (for instance, Cassandra Clare ONLY writing Shadowhunter books). Bravo, Stephenie, thanks for trying!

With that said, I didn't love this. I guess the best I can say is that it was okay. I almost liked it. I liked the ending. I think she did a good job in the last 50 pages (of 500) to engage me, throw in some twists, and create some drama. But the first 450 pages? The word that comes to mind is "tedious." Not bad... just... not great.

I never got invested in the main character. She changes names so much in the first several chapters that sometimes I just didn't know who they were talking about (I mean, I knew, but I couldn't remember when that name had been introduced). And she wasn't likable. I didn't DISLIKE her, but I didn't relate to her at all; she just wasn't LIKABLE.

It is also so CLINICAL, especially at first. At the same time, her writing style doesn't fit with the genre. I'm a big fan of Reacher books, which really nail the genre. This felt like a teen/romance writer trying to write like Lee Child and I just didn't buy it. It was discordant. The romance didn't seem realistic; she's hardcore, she's distant... and yet she's instantly disorientingly in love with this new guy? Really? I would have bought a romance with Kevin better.

So... it was okay. I liked it. But I'm glad I got it at the library and didn't spend the money on it, and I've learned that I won't love everything Meyers writes.
4496980
I did want to like this book. I really tried. The reviews made it sound interesting and amusing and it so easily could have been. The story is clever, the worldbuilding is interesting and original (there's some nice new terminology for vampires - "larva" is so much more appropriate for a newly-created bloodsucking parasite than "fledgling"), the hero and the heroine are both intelligent, intrepid and nice, the secondary characters are well drawn and charming. I am particularly fond of the delightful Professor Lyle, Beta Werewolf. There are mad scientists and ingenious devices and nice clothes. If the author had contented herself with a simpler style, it would have been a decent book.

But. In pastiche, words matter, and words are where this would-be romp trips on its hem and falls flat, not just once but throughout. I would strongly suggest that the author, before writing her next book in this style:

(a)Do just a bit more research into the manners, mores and vocabulary of late Victorian England, including such basic information as the correct styles and titles of the peerage. This is actually quite straightforward, we aren't talking about the Byzantine Imperial bureaucracy here. Getting the Queen's style and title correct would be nice too, especially if she is to be given another walk-on part. Google would be her friend given half a chance.

(b) Avoid the use of modern US locutions and vocabulary in the narrative and in the dialogue of non-US characters. I am unpersuaded that "rile" and "Gee" are terms applicable to or in the vocabulary of a two-hundred year old Scottish nobleman, whether or not he is also a werewolf.

(c) Read Nancy Mitford's "Noblesse Oblige" and Jilly Cooper's "Class". These are, obviously, 20th century sources, but on the evidence of the novel temporal or geographical dissonance of vocabulary is not an issue that concerns the author.

(d) Improve her English. Off-hand, I recall that the author clearly does not understand the meaning or usage of such words and phrases as "dissemble", "high tea", "social class" and "purposeful", and her grasp of prepositions is generally shaky. This is a small sample of various egregious errors of usage that riddle this book and make it unsuitable even for students of English-as-a-second language to use for reading practice.

And finally I come to the overwhelming point that drove me to decide that this is a book to be hurled aside with great force: the author's appalling proposition that the heroine, a rational, brave, intellectually-inclined and independent-spirited woman, has these qualities because she lacks a soul. It's used as a rather clever plot point - the heroine's condition allows her to turn vampires and werewolves (temporarily) back into ordinary humans with a touch - but the offensive implications of this premise are obvious to anyone with half a brain.

While it definitely has good points and the author clearly has some talent, I cannot recommend this book to anyone. If you want Victorian steampunk comedy, read Catherine Webb's three Horatio Lyle novels, which are much better.
933352
I really wanted to like this.  The style of writing is interesting, and somewhat poetic, which is why this even rates two stars.  The story just seems to ramble on and on, and didn't keep my attention.  It was painful to keep going, and I still haven't finished it...  (I normally read through books to the end in a relatively short amount of time.)  The writing style, while interesting and poetic, slips key bits of information into the story to the point where it's almost hidden, rather than doing what most writers do and building up to important parts of the storyline.  Several times I found myself rereading a sentence or paragraph to verify that I had read it correctly -- that significant parts of the story had just been slipped in to otherwise rambling text.  It's not that things need to be pointed out to me, but I found this method of storytelling very anti-climactic.  Additionally, the characters were so highly flawed, with so little (or in some cases no) redeeming qualities, I didn't find myself connecting with any of them.  I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't get into it.
756359
I really, really, really wanted to like this book. I love the idea, and I came to like Rosalind the main character as the book went on. The book starts off very slow at first, and I felt like I got bogged down right away with certain details that did not help the pacing. Rosalind seemed kind of a flat character, and I know this was meant to be a young adult, but I think a romance or even a romantic connection would've added to her depth.
3866575
Really wanted to like the book. I truly liked the concept but the storytelling just could not bring me into the book as it should have. I couldn't connect with the main character or heck any of them really and maybe to many were in and out of the book quickly. It skipped around a lot for me and sometimes that got confusing. I never truly liked the main character just couldn't connect with her, which is what the book is about as you read in the blurb and that for me was the worst of it because I did try to like her and I have read many books that I don't care for many characters but when you don't like the main one I dunno, it just wasn't for me I guess. I found myself dreading to read it and took many times of just putting it down and coming back to finish and even some skimming here and there and that is something I try to never do! But I did finish it but it took a long time as I would have to just put it down and go back later hoping that is was going to get better but it didn't I was never so glad for a book to be over, sorry it just wasn't for me.

I see the book has quite a few great ratings, I think they way its written is sometimes so over the top I just couldn't "like it" . I was given this book as a Reviewer from Book Review  22 for my honest Review and nothing else.
1611780
I wanted to like this book. I like post-apcalyptic fiction, and the idea was a good one. I just couldn't like this book. The characters were too stereotypical of feminists and macho menthey were also a bit flat. It was too much like porn for my taste. There was just too much in this story that didn't work, and I just didn't find believable. I feel that the author is creative enough that if she did some writing workshops and re-wrote the book, shed have something really goodmake the characters in the two different societies a little more subtle in their differences.
1367989
I wanted to like this book. I REALLY wanted to like it. As others have said, it seems like a lot of the book is style over substance.

I understand the author's intention behind everything he did from the footnotes to Truant's rambling to the layouts, I just didn't care. There just wasn't enough character development or a story for me. I don't read books to say "Oh, that's a page cleverly designed to make me feel claustrophobic, even if it doesn't!" I read them so that the words and my imagination will evoke that emotion. Putting the words cramped on the corner of a page didn't do anything for me. Now, had there been a character I cared about and was invested in emotionally, then yes, I probably would have gotten a lot more out of this book. In my opinion, though, the characters were just too flat to engage me. Truant probably had the most depth but, unfortunately, I just didn't "click" with him at all. If anything, I was happy to be rid of him when I finished the book.

That said, I know this book has a lot of fans, so it must work for some people, it just didn't for me.
704542
This book had so much potential. I wanted to like it. I really did. Unfortunately, I just didn't like it at all. The idea is great, but the writing and flow need a lot of work.

I would have liked a lot more information on the world before everyone disappeared. The description mentions the soaring population and the outlawing of birth control. I would have liked to know why and how this happened; it sounded so interesting.

I've read several reviews that said the beginning of the book was slow. Yes, in a way it was, but the beginning was really the only part I liked. Once Darrel and Felix met up with Maggy, things went way downhill for me. I struggled to finish, and if I didn't have the nice personality quirk of having to finish books I start, I probably would not have finished this book after Maggy came into the picture. I didn't like her a bit. The nicknames were cruel, and in Felix's case, racist. She seemed very annoying in general. I also, honestly, just despised the "alion" thing and how she pushed it on everyone they met. I'm sorry, but I find it hard to believe a 17 year old would correct a military official on something so superficial, and even more unbelievable that these adults would just accept this and not wave her away like the pest she is. I mentally corrected it to alien.

Darrel is really not much better. The...sound...he makes all the time is just annoying. Every time the group stops for a few minutes, it seems he's eating or thinking about eating or wanting to eat...it gets old, fast. And really, I don't need to know every time he wets himself. Ick. I get that they're scared, but some things are better left unsaid. Also, the "bromigo" thing was just irritating as all get out. Apparently, when I got the book, it had been edited to remove 75% of the bromigo/bramiga's. I am so thankful for this. The 25% that were left were still WAY too many, though. I found myself rolling my eyes eventually.

The main characters are supposed to be 16/17. If this had not been stated outright, I would have put their ages at about 13. They act younger and more immature than their ages. This really took away from the story for me.

Honestly, there were very few characters I liked in this book, and one of those few ended up dead. Though, since the book is VERY "video game"-y, I can say I seriously would not have been surprised one bit if he had re-spawned. Seriously. "Xxxxxx screamed as the massive paws and powerful jaws of the feline extraterrestrial ripped into his body. Our faces went slack with shock as we simultaneously wet our pants. I reached for my inhaler, sucking on it like a crackhead trying to get as much of the last hit as possible. We sighed in relief a few minutes later, when he re-spawned several yards away." *not an actual quote, though had it been, I wouldn't have been even mildly surprised* I'm not even joking: it wouldn't have shocked me one bit.

The book really does read like a sub-par first-person shooter. Maybe this would make a decent video game; I don't know. What I do know is, in my opinion, it does not make a very good book. The ending seemed completely unrealistic and rushed. It seemed like it needed a little more thought, a little more time.

I won't harp on the spelling/grammar issues. Others have done this already and probably did a better job than I would. It did get a little distracting, though. The book needs more editing, to catch those mistakes.

Again, I really wanted to like this book. The summary made it sound so interesting. However, the writing style was just not something I enjoy, and the plot went in an entirely different direction than I'd expected, and unfortunately, I did not like that direction.

Oh, important information: I am WAY out of the target demographic for this book. I read it because I just flat-out love YA dystopian/post-apocalyptic fiction. Perhaps if I were still in junior high I would enjoy it. Younger readers may enjoy it; I, however, did not.

This review originally appeared on GoodReads.