Crazy Stupid Obsession
349053
Gavin made me crazy with the way he treated Harlee in the beginning, but then he totally melted me by stepping up and doing whatever it took to be with her. Harlee was, understandably, a little afraid to be all in with Gavin.  Gavin really was sweet to her and it doesnt hurt that their chemistry is insane. Bryan really needs to get his own happy ending..maybe with Angel? He is too nice and open to leave him brokenhearted, and I think Angel might be what he needs, wants, and likes.

**** I was given an arc from Give Me Books Promotions in exchange for an honest review****
2903069
This second book in this series is insane and I don't care...I love it! Read this entire series then hop online to read the snarky reviews at the LiveJournal community 1Bruce1 dedicated to all the things we love to hate about our favorite twins.
987871
I accepted a long time ago that it takes a special mindset to read Stuart Woods books as opposed to most similar works of fiction. His books are like cotton candy - tasty, amusing and perhaps even slightly addictive....but totally without any real substance. The characters are fun to follow because they're all 'beautiful' people with plenty of money and lots of sexual adventures. What's not to like?
The plots however are utterly absurd. The constant coincidences get pretty silly and the gaps in logic are astounding. Like, Holly & the state and local police are constantly telling everyone they meet who they suspect of being the rapist/murderer and why. In one case they manage to go from a vague suspicion to a virtual certainly of one suspect, all without the slightest shred of evidence. Another time a killer uses a handgun on a victim in his home in a residential area in the dead of night and never even considers whether the neighbors might hear the shot. It's all just way too convenient at the expense of simple common sense.
It's good reading for the beach or a long plane ride where you just want some light distraction for a few hours, but don't make the mistake of trying to make sense out the plot points because by the end you'll just be frustrated by the poorly thought out conclusion.
4939150
This book was absolutely ridiculous. What woman in their right mind would allow a man she does not know climb through her window and have sex with him. Then just allow said man to take control of her life and her child's. She knows nothing about him (what he does for a living, his past, etc..) I'm all for a great hot alpha man but this was creepy stalker to the 10th power. He punishes her for absurd things and he's down right rude. This book made my head hurt.
4400541
There's This-Will-Make-You-Stupider Bad, like a James Patterson novel, and then there's something like Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, elegantly written with themes worthy of your contemplation, yet still bad when you consider its preposterous events.

* As one reviewer pointed out, the creature is created in less than a paragraph.  And you're not even sure how it happened.  I had to rewind because I thought I'd missed something, but no:  one moment Victor is like, "I was reading books" and the next he's like, "I looked at my creation's black lips and I hated it!"

* Victor freaks out and just leaves an 8-foot superbeing (that he hates) hanging out at his apartment.  (He does this throughout the whole book, just leaving it at-large somewhere.  He's justifiably deathly paranoid that the fiend might harm his family - it already killed his brother - but he goes to Scotland anyway to build a she-creature.)  (And not just a long working-weekend either, but rather a months-long pleasure cruise around the British Isles.  I don't get it.)

*  The creature went from hideous dumb clod to hideous Collin Firth in a matter of months via eavesdropping on some peasants. Fine.  His erudite, eloquent narration is all sensitivity, even as he's describing (to Victor) how he strangled Victor's kid brother.  Fine.  Fine.  Whatever.  I guess I'm okay with it.  Moving on....

*  Victor and the creature stalk each other with uncanny success everywhere on the European continent.  And not  just at each other's houses, but in the woods, on boats, in cabins, on mountains, on dog-sleds, across multiple terrains and during different weather systems.  In a coup of because-I'm-the-author-and-I-said-so, Mary Shelly leads us to believe that the creature prepares for Victor a scavenger hunt across the North Pole, leaving taunting messages and even meals of dead hare to nourish Victor for their final showdown.

I'll stop there.  There's tons more crazy-unreal coincidences interwoven with breezy descriptions of incredible scenarios.  I thought this was going to be literature on the order of Turn of the Screw or Poe, but no.  It's a fun listen, don't get me wrong.  The language and diction are probably good for you, and you should also be massively entertained by the absurdity of what is purported to be happening.
2164019
This book is the epitome of an addiction.  It starts out with some pangs of "wow did that just happen?" here and there but as you keep reading you feel shocked the entire time. It's almost like you know some things are bound to happen but you doubt yourself because that is just too crazy. It can't. Be.
If you haven't bought the book already I don't know what your doing with your life.
2886833
Chew is the crazy tale of Tony Chu, a man who can eat something and pick up "psychic projections" off of the object. This object can be anything: beef, an orange... or a human finger. Tony is tapped by the FDA, now a massively powerful government agency after a global outbreak of bird flu, to investigate the strangest cases.

Chew's concept is so absurdly creative. I mean, what kind of person comes up with this stuff? The story was extremely captivating, and hilariously written. Worth a read for anyone seeking a ridiculous story that really grabs your attention.
529680
I am 50% into reading this book and Phillip is ridiculous, possessive, and seemingly emotionally disturbed. He has yet to evolve into someone more worthy of the unbelievably, naive Molly. He also needs to stop growling-- lol.
4625443
I love everything about this story,but the guy she end up with. I hated him with a passion. Couldn't stop obsessing over the person she use to be and was still hang up on his ex-wife. I would have kick him to the curb and move on.
216259
I cannot feel sorry for a woman that finds a way to love an illiterate jerk like "Lil Wayne".

It is especially ridiculous as she threw away a seemingly nice man for said jerk.

But what is more INSANE to me is why people keep getting involved with this woman!  If you can put aside her obvious unworthiness of any relationship, then you have to ask yourself "DO I WANT TO BE THE SUBJECT OF THIS CHEAP TROLLOP'S NEXT BOOK?"

Anyone wanting a truly PERSONAL personal life would be foolish to date her.  She should also inspire HIV testing.

There is nothing wrong with a healthy sex life, but our bodies weren't meant to be human merry go rounds and it is no way to establish a truly meaningful relationship (going from bed to bed with anyone, especially trash like those two)....

Unbelievable.

I am just grateful I didn't pay to read her poorly written garbage and read it on my sister's Kindle. Her threshold for trash is higher than mine. ---- Mark's wife
363879
A very long book about really stupid people. Most of the females sleep with a guy once and find themselves pregnant.....seriously?

The guys are  womanizers.  Everyone is sleeping with people they should not be.

WAY too many "heart wrenching" moments to even remotely be believable.

All the characters are in some way related or connected in unlikely ways and have relationships that make zero sense. I'm just SURE that after pushing her father down the stairs and almost paralyzing him, they will go on to have a "normal" relationship....right.

To be a character in this book, the females must all be incredibly dumb and have poor taste.  The men must all be amazingly wealthy.

Grace is odd. Each page tries to make her into a completely different character. Lonely, love struck, alcoholic, gossiper, leaps to conclusions based on glances and snippets of conversation, acts insane and almost commits murder, then suddenly responsible, shy, all knowing and wise, and babysitting....... all over the map. The oddest however is her attempt to make a pass at her father, AFTER she knows he IS her father. What the heck?

The part about breaking the glass and ripping the canvas on a painting is nonsensical. Oil paintings on canvas are not covered with glass.  Nor would/could Tessa begin to be able to afford to frame more than 100 paintings.

In the scene with Antonia and Ross after she damages the painting and he says he'll have to call an ambulance and she threatens to break a wine bottle and cut her wrists, why on earth did he not remove the bottle from the scene,and call an ambulance?  Personally driving her to the hospital does not get her help any faster, nor is his presence necessary there.  For a person who is as capable of doing, running and taking care of things as Ross is, his action here made no sense at all.

The utter and instant acceptance of Mattie by Tessa and the understanding when Ross starts spending time with her, when viewed from his past actions is insane.

And Adam, who on earth is Adam? He is portrayed as a loud boorish male who without any explanation, suddenly morphs into a helpful good guy.  Inexplicable.

Holly is never going to have different taste and Max hated those things. Why would she even want to be with someone who was SO reluctant to even look at her?  How could he serious consider a long term relationship with someone whose taste and thinking he does not like?

As unlikely as the 4 main characters are to have happy long marriages, they are rapidly coupled by the end of the book. Mattie however is left to raise yet another illegitimate daughter alone, while having some sort of warm and mind meeting relationship with Ross, father of child #, now husband to Tessa, so unlikely.

All in all a very long book about totally unlikable characters filled with obvious injections of over the top, "heart wrenching" scenes whose aftermath leaves them unnecessary.
833932
I am halfway through and the more I read the more stupid I feel. I read to be entertained, not to be made a fool of. Is there anything believable in this book? I doubt that I will pick it back up. I came in to read the reviews to see if I was missing something here, but it keeps getting weirder and now that I know I am not alone feeling this way, I am not going to question my sanity any further. Really, Karen, I have read all your books and ordered this from my book club simply on my past positive feel on your books. I think I will never buy another book until I read a few reviews.
a very unhappy reader.
4061622
We can all agree that the plot of this story is completely preposterous, right? I mean, it's next-level preposterous, and this is coming from someone who loves Kresley's IAD series, featuring vampires, werewolves, demons, and all sorts of otherwordly entities. But, Kresley's stories are always fun, and even when I found myself laughing at some of the more ridiculous scenes ("Take my credit card, darling. You didn't spend enough money yesterday. I just earned another billion dollars. Spend more. MORE! You're not trying to spend frivolously enough!), she still swept me along.

BTW, I know a hallmark of all of Kresley's male characters is extreme possessiveness (not my cup of tea, but that's OK), but Dmitri was just too much. Beating Victoria's ex, bloodying his hands from pounding walls, and extreme stalking of Victoria, etc. Let's dial it back a bit next time, OK, Kresley?
977044
ridiculous is about the best way to describe these freak'n awesome shoes!  the colors are awesome...what are you wasting time reading this for?  go buy 'em!
2458816
A pair of incredibly stupid women separated by time and re-incarnated, who are supposed to be the "good gals." But they are so dumb as to be completely unaware of the plots around them. And the plot? To get the three book of the old, weird, ancient, and holy "Trilogy." Which will lead the lucky person to the Holy Grail, which in turn allows them to, dare I say it? Live forever! Ah, that pesky Holy Grail is at it again. It will not stay lost or dead. And a word to Kate Moss, I am really happy you speak French, but most of us don't want to. And Watch out! As for our heroines, Xena and Gabrielle they certainly are not. This soap opera is basically Katherine Neville's "Eight," but not as well traveled geographically, nor does it have funny cross-desert jaunt in a convertible by the two gals.
3285268
Oh, God. Let's just get it over with and say that EVERYONE ON EARTH IS SECRETLY GAY. EVERYONE. This is one of the stupidest books I've ever glanced through - yes, GLANCED through, since I couldn't stomach slowing down to allow the words to stick in my head. Madsen, who I believe is secretly gay himself, is hellbent on making as many dead people gay as possible. And he can't write. I take particular offense at his chapter on Barbara Stanwyck. She was a brilliant actress and a very private person. Her life was relatively scandal-free. Mr. Madsen, you would be hurting right now if she were alive to crucify you in court. If only I could see that!!!
2796090
I am about 75 pages into this book and I have to stop reading it. I am literally becoming ill from the ridiculous super-woman theme that is ratcheting up further with each subsequent page. Having had a child with Down Syndrome who lived to 14 months of age with a sever seizure disorder (infantile spasms), I know what life is like when days are filled with unfruitful therapy sessions and a child who is in pain and has lost all her emotions. I simply do not believe this mom could have given Jake the type of attention she says she gave him, researched her son's condition to the extent she did, plus cared for her severely ill infant Wesley, plus ran a daycare from her home. The hours do not exist in the day to do what she says she did. What clinched it for me is that she claims she stayed up transcribing a story one of her 8-year-old daycare charges told her that she recorded on her cell phone, took the time to print it out and bind it into a volume, and give it to the child, and then every day found a new picture for the child to create a story from. When could this have happened? She was already not sleeping a wink because she had to stay by Wesley's bedside because of his breathing issues and because she was reading all kinds of textbooks and articles about autism that were strewn about her bedroom. The pace that she claims to have kept up would have resulted in a breakdown of her own health and/or mind. But instead she says she took on creating a "night school" for autistic kids in the community. As another reviewer has said, the fact that her son navigated them through downtown Chicago because he had memorized an atlas of the United States when he was not yet four, but he still wasn't talking--it's not ringing true. I feel a fair amount of license has been taken with this story to make it sound perfect and impressive--and we're never allowed to forget just how brilliant and superior her son is to all those "typical" kids out there. Not only that, she keeps finding ways to throw in how brilliant her family of origin was, with her wealthy inventor grandfather and artistically precocious sister. There is a performance orientation here that I've spent many years trying to break free from, and I am recoiling at the pride and perfectionism I'm picking up from this book. I can't read any more of this.