I couldn't suspend enough belief
344546
This was my first (and last) book by this author. It read like an R-rated Scooby-Doo cartoon with GI-Joe dialogue. And the plot was obvious from the 3rd chapter--maybe earlier, frankly I just didn't much care. After that, it was just trying to stop myself from shouting, "NOBODY with a badge would realistically do that!" The only bright spot was the goofy sidekick, Danny, who narrated the whole thing in first person. He was just wacky enough to make this book readable. If you are looking for realism, this isn't for you. As hard as I tried, I couldn't suspend enough belief to enjoy it except to say I finished it.
4793840
Ok.  There are far too many dramatic conclusions to relationships and situations for me. Work of fiction, or not, there's still a limit to believability.
3402319
I can see right away that the writing is outstanding but I cannot take the subject matter. As a lawyer I worked on a murder case which was blamed on a Manson like cult. The bloody photos and weapons and killing of three kids and their pregnant mother are too real to me. I simply could not read this story, no matter how good it was. Maybe younger folks, who don't remember the Manson cult will fare better.
419870
too much self examination...I wanted the story to move along
4751298
I loved the setting and the characters of the book, and couldn't stop reading. However the closer I came to the end the more nervous I was that the author wouldn't be able to provide an satisfying conclusion to the story. Sadly I was right and I closed the with a feeling that too many questions went unanswered.
1218391
Unfortuantely this review is going to be short and sweet as I couldn't bring myself to finish reading the book; if I didn't have other books to read I am sure I could have made myself finish it but I kept pushing it down to the bottom of my TBR list.

I originally picked up this book because I adore Jane Austen and in the past have found Jane Austen fiction quite enjoyable.  However, I couldn't get engrossed in this book.  I did in fact find Jane Hayes a believable character.  However, the make-believe world that she finds herself in what so make-believe, even for me.  I couldn't get past this fact.  I have read quite a few reviews on this book that rated it rather high, so maybe sometime in the future I will be able to give another chance.
2536131
As Holden Caulfield once said, "It was so putrid, I couldn't take my eyes off of it".  This was about a movie he'd seen but reflects my feeling about this book.  It was perhaps an interesting idea to begin with but the author added references to just about every conspiracy theory I have ever heard about and tried to blend them into something rational. I found it impossible to willingly suspend my disbelief.  I don't recall if I actually finished this book or not, in any case I'm sure I won't remember it for long.  It seems these days that just about any idiot can call himself a writer and e publish his works.  But as always great story tellers like Tolkien and Martin or G.B. Shaw, Vonnegut, or Jan Willem de Wetering are rare as chicken teeth.
4481508
I started this book about three times before I finally got into it enough to continue reading.  It was such a convoluted story and although exciting and interesting, just too many circumstances that were impossible to believe that anything remotely like that could actually happen.  But then, it was fiction so I'm glad I read it but happy to be finished with it.
3475211
Could not suspend my disbelief enough to finish the book.  I'm glad it was cheap.
862200
I feel like I bought some hype with this book. I honestly believe that if it hadn't kept popping up in my Facebook newsfeed, touted as one of the best books of the year, I wouldn't feel so put off. If I had found this on my own I could have appreciated its charms.

Book one reminded me very much of what my mother told me about her childhood, though it takes place in the years that covered MY childhood. The large family, poverty, exhausted mother (benign neglect?), and forceful father remind me much of Depression era stories. I kept reading for two reasons - I liked the relationship between the two sisters, and I wanted to see them get out of the god-awful situation they were in.

Getting into books two and three - which I can't differentiate - didn't help. I still kept reading hoping I'd "help" them on to better circumstances. I got to the 80% mark and kept thinking I should give up, but was too close to the end to quit. Spoiler: Frankly, I kept waiting for the punch line - I wanted something to indicate that Iris couldn't possibly be that taken in by sleazy Max. No such luck.

I'm sorry I didn't love this book the way the reviews said I would. I liked the last four percent the most. At least the conclusion was somewhat satisfying.
2673846
There was too much detail that I thought made to story confusing.
3312865
I enjoyed the first book in the series but this one had some many points where I went "REALLY? That couldn't happen." That I almost gave up on it several times.  For example, Layla goes to play in a pub and no one supposedly knows who she is. REALLY, in today's social media world the news wouldn't get out over Twitter? There were many such moments.  Overall it required more effort to suspend belief  than it was worth.
2615047
The deed was unfathomable, I had hoped for an insight it was not there. I was left with such an unsettled feeling
141081
The explanation of some of the content was not clear enough or seemed rather impossible.  I know it is fiction.
2483952
For context, I am a fan of realistic crime fiction (e.g., Michael Connelly). The overall story line here was good, but there were just too many coincidences for this story to work. Simon does to much introspective pondering for my taste. He never cleans his gun, never has to reload, always finds the right people in cities of millions and always wrings the necessary information out of the bad guys.

This was all just not believable for me. Suspend your belief and it's a fast moving story.
574991
I liked the theme of this book,  and greatly encourage the author to write more books despite the poor score I'm giving this one.

I was not able to finish this book,  and doubt that I ever will.  As much as I love steampunk and stories involving time,  in reading this the jumping back and forth between time periods left me feeling more uninformed than curious,  and the suspension of disbelief required for the modern era was ultimately beyond me to muster.

I love steampunk - I love the art,  the style,  the spirit of reuse,  the anachronism, and the ability through strength of will and engineering cunning to harness even poorly understood power to the will of it's wielder.  I think that I reached the limits of my suspension of disbelief though when we had steam powered low Earth orbit vehicles doing great taxi-work between cities that couldn't seem to tame the wilderness in between them.  There had been several things before that that I was reluctantly willing to go along with for the sake of the story,  but at that point I think I started to break down and only made it a few chapters after that before I ground to a halt.
222680
Perhaps  due  to  my  lack  mental  strength  -  this  book  was  not  THE  END  OF  CERTAINTY  for  me  -  it's  just  DIFFICULT  reading.