I wanted to like this book
347908
It starts with Alexis Donovan.  She feels like she is less than a normal woman that can have children.  The society she has grown up in has shown her that.  She has 2 stalker ex-boyfriends.  They are really never blown out as characters.  THey are just creeps that stalk her.  It glosses over what they did to her.

She meets 4 dragon warriors who immediately know she is theirs.  The mate they have looked for a very long time.  But... these wariors all have back stories.  I mean they would have to.  However, we never really hear about them.

spoiler:  I liked that she got to be a shifter.  Being a dragon would be fun!

However there wasn't any climax.  No real big scene.  No enemies, no nothing.  Just a boring group of people that you know they will beat.  AHHHHH!  I hated that.

Good romance scenes, but I found this one lacking.
2196090
Let me preface this by saying, I really wanted to like this book. I like end of times stuff a lot, and while I'm not into zombies a lot, I don't mind reading some zombie work.

I think there was a good framework for the story here, it just got a little lost somewhere in development. I think the major flaw in this book was the use of real characters, obviously friends of the author. To me the whole story seemed forced by the inclusion of these characters. It greatly reminded me of high school English projects where you would include your friends in whatever story you were writing. I think the development of new characters would have freed up the story a little bit by forcing more character development.

Some minor spoilers below:
I won't go into too much nitpicking of the overall plot, mainly because it does require suspension of belief since it is fiction work. However, using nukes and other military strikes to destroy bridges, tv stations, a small town doctor who is apparently at the forefront of "zombie" research does push my limits.

Overall, I think that it could be the start to a really good book, but I just felt like the writer wanted to be able to write a zombie story that all of his buddies were a part of. Starting with predefined characters really limited what could be done with the story. It's not a bad read for an afternoon, but I probably wouldn't read it had I known what I know now.
459201
I wanted to like this book, but to me it felt so awkward and forced. I had paid for it, so I figured I should finish it, hoping it would get better. That never happened for me.

The writing was sometimes stilted and off, and the basic premise didn't resonate with me. Two stars was the best rating I could muster.
1971418
I really wanted to like this book..but, after the first few chapters - in which EVERY point is repeated too many times with too many adjectives and correlations...I gave up.  I think the author has potential - good editing would help pare the story down.  I'm disappointed.
1291400
I wanted to like this book. I wanted to get into the plot to understand the grit and underlying mechanics of addiction. I just couldn't get into. I read 20 or 30 pages here or there in between court hearings and didn't pick it up for a week. Slowly read the book over a two month span. It's well-written, the plot is logical, I think my biggest issue is that the main character just isn't likable. The book is written from a first-person viewpoint and without being able to relate to her, it's hard to get into the plot or sympathize with any of her flaws. It's well-reviewed, and seems to be well-received by most, so maybe it's just me.
4604112
I really wanted to like this book - and around page 200 - I think I finally started to.

From the offset the story travels in a bee's flight start to finish approach: but wait let's pause - and then resume - but never quite get back to the original point that a chapter or paragraph launched with. The story is frustrating (as if not edited or re-read subjectively by the author) - and often puts on airs of self-importance and name dropping to tie this autobiography onto some larger world or into the world's important events and happenings. A pattern Sessums seems to have been leaning into since his early life as the story tells it. He also seems to have an incredibly detailed memory from about 3.5 to 6 years of age... which at times seems a little filled in by a creative and self-flattering imagination.

Sessums is fascinated by his own "natural grace", "heightened sensitivities" and "exotic"-ness. He mentions these alluring attributes several times throughout the story - typically writing that these traits have been realized by other persons who he's encountered.

Sessums weaves back and forth interestingly for a while with an interesting imaginary friend crossing into real life as real people seem to fade out of the real world. He lays out tons of great references to "American classics" and other authors as well as to musicians, singers and musicals - some I am familiar with - others I've scratched down a list to look into.

He gives up an entire chapter of his own story to his brother's account of his time with Reverend Graham - which is so bizarrely out of step with the story in a forced fairytale tone - that by the end I thoroughly imagined bird's landing on ladies' outstretched fingers and a choir of angels bursting from the clouds.

In disclaimer, I will add: There is no way for me to imagine the losses Sessums encountered at a young age, matched up with being a sissy in southern culture, as well as with molestation. The book sloppily attempts to string itself into the issue of racism in the south through 1) an imaginary playmate, 2) a nanny/housekeeper type figure and 3) finally the man who takes his virginity.

Still wanting to have really liked this book, I dug into his website a bit before sitting down to type - trying to get a better feel for him as a person since the books gives so little (or what it gives seems incredibly far-fetched and not terribly likeable) - and found it interesting that an early negative review of his book dents his ego and he then makes a point of blogging that the critic gave no credit to the sensitive issues of race in the book (!) - that the critic isn't his "target audience" - that this mean critic is known to have no taste for "Southern gothic literature" - and that this is one more time in his life that the sissy is getting beat up on by a bully (and a lesbian at that).

His list actually makes her the perfect critic.

While Sessums blog is more current... it follows the same patterns as the book - it never lets the story tell itself - at least not until about page 203.
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.
3520295
I wanted to like this book and kept reading in the hopes the story would pick up. But almost halfway into this book I gave up. The premise is a good one and perhaps, as some other reviewers said, the story became interesting, but there are enough books out there that really grab me that it wasn't worth going on with this one.
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.
3083296
I really wanted to like this book! Based on the glowing reviews, and the fact that I tend to like curmudgeons and tales of redemption, it seemed like a perfect choice for me. But, try as I might, I just couldn't get into it. I found the syntax and writing style simplistic and distracting, and the characters flat and predictable. I did learn that Kindle books are returnable within 7 days of purchase. Unfortunately, I didn't learn this until 9 days after I purchased it.
987434
I really wanted to like this book but...

The characters were two dimensional and I couldn't grow attached to any of them.  I did like the love interest though.  The author focused well on her two main characters but then seemed to have trouble utilizing the rest of them.  The storyline was not compelling for me either.  The story was based on Lex needing to find a boyfriend so that her grandmother wouldn't cut funding for the school volley ball team.  The author barely focused any reading time on the volley ball team and so I struggled to even care about what happened to them.  It seemed like since the whole book was about saving this team, that the author would have focused better on them.  The storyline struggle for any focus.  The book flitted from one topic to another and left me having a hard time caring about anything that was going on in Lex's life.  I couldn't understand why Lex just didn't make up a boyfriend for her grandmother.  It seems like it would have been simple enough for her to take one of her friends to family functions.  I can understand where Lex wouldn't think that this is moral, but the fact that the idea never even crossed her mind seemed strange to me.

I could have handled all of the above flaws a lot better if I liked Lex.  However, I found her to be one of the most annoying main characters that I have ever read about.  She whined about everything.  The book was a cycle of things going wrong for her and then her complaining about them.  I understand that we all do this but the extent to which she did this was sickening.  She also came off as extremely selfish.  She was constantly asking people for help and then was rude to them when they did help her.  She didn't handle it well when someone wasn't able to help her.  The one time that she actually helped someone, she sulked and complained about it the whole time.  She was rude at some point to every single person that she came in contact with.  I couldn't for the life of me understand in the beginning why her love interest even liked her.  She was rude to him for their first few encounters-especially their first encounter.  He must have been glutton for punishment or something.  I found it hard to relate to her.  I, personally, am not a big sports fan and she was a major sports fan.  I wish that the author would have included a few other interests of hers.  That's just me personally though.

I skimmed this book and still felt like I wasted my time.
3737020
I wanted to like this book. But there were some shortcomings. With a few exceptions, the emotions of the characters didn't come through.
87748
I really, really wanted to like this book. And I tried! Quite hard! But, ultimately, it fell flat for me. I think one of the reasons this book wasn't as good as it could be is that the audience for it was unclear. Was Marilyn Johnson writing to inform librarians about the future of their profession? Was she writing to educate the public about all the great things librarians will happily do for them? I felt like she did both, but in scattered way that didn't really achieve excellence with eit...moreI really, really wanted to like this book. And I tried! Quite hard! But, ultimately, it fell flat for me. I think one of the reasons this book wasn't as good as it could be is that the audience for it was unclear. Was Marilyn Johnson writing to inform librarians about the future of their profession? Was she writing to educate the public about all the great things librarians will happily do for them? I felt like she did both, but in scattered way that didn't really achieve excellence with either. Overall, the book ended up feeling sort of like a breathless recounting of what technologically advanced librarians were doing -- three years ago. A lot of the anecdotes she relates seem stale already, including the forty page long descriptions of libraries in Second Life. Honestly, I'm starting to think Second Life is made up entirely of academics who are writing papers about how Second Life is going to change the world.

Overall, this book had a couple of interesting nuggets in it, but if you're at all acquainted with what librarians do, or the technology that's used not just in libraries, but in all kinds of businesses, it's a skippable book.
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.
4873688
I wanted to like this book, but I struggled to relate to the author's "perfection."  It seems that once she started living hands-free, her life became easy, her children were always wonderful, and the family spent their time having meaningful conversations and looking into each other's eyes.  I wanted more practicality.  When does she do laundry?  When does she go to the grocery and make dinner and clean her house?  How is she fully engaged with her family at every possible moment of the day while writing a book, maintaining a blog, exercising and getting eight hours of sleep each night?  Her life seemed unattainable, and her suggestions felt very detached from my day to day reality.
926299
I wanted to like this book. I really, really tried to like this book! But I just couldn't get into it. I haven't read the other books, so maybe that makes a difference. But on it's own, this book is flat and repetitive. I wasn't looking for grand literature, but a nice summer read would have been nice. Instead of developing the characters and giving them depth, the main characters repeat the same feelings and thoughts over and over and over again. I wanted to cheer for Gwen and Rick, but there wasn't enough depth to them to really care about them as a couple. I felt like the author had a good idea for a story; as if she could possibly be a pretty good writer, but she really needs to focus on making her characters a little less shallow and a little more lifelike. I also felt like the whole Camille/Dylan storyline was out of place, like it was another book altogether. I'd rather have seen some of Gwen's siblings or friends developed further. Or if the Camille/Dylan line is important, to develop it even farther and give it a bit more tension in the story as a whole. Overall this book had the lines of promise--it just never gets there.
1525688
I wanted to love this book. I wanted to love it so much. It's a Victorian-era detective novel set in the 1890's. I was expecting something like Alex Grecian's The Yard. Of course, it's set in New England instead of London, but I was still very excited.

And it started out really well. The body of a local thief is discovered under unusual circumstances, with evidence of the occult (or at least somebody trying to stage it to look that way). The problem is, the thief in question was killed days earlier and was already buried, meaning that whoever staged the scene also robbed his grave. Detectives Grey and Lean set about trying to unravel the mystery.

The problem is, once the "unravelling" begins it never stops, like a sweater being pulled apart by a loose thread. There are so many subplots and extraneous story lines about occult practices, Viking settlements, academic researchers, medieval mystics, and long lost relatives that it made my head spin. Every time I started a new chapter I felt like I was picking up a different book. I was nearly through the novel (it's nearly 400 pages) before I even figured out what the "revenge" was that was referred to in the title. I almost felt like I must have been reading it wrong, if that's possible.

Disclaimer: I received a digital galley of this book free from both NetGalley and Edelweiss (thanks guys!). I was asked to write an honest review, though not necessarily a favourable one. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.