We love Otis, but this book just never really goes ...
349346
We love Otis, but this book just never really goes anywhere. The pictures are beautiful, it's just a very long story that is quite boring. My kindergarteners were not engaged at like they normally are when I read Otis books.
459329
I wanted to love this book; however I was sadly disappointed. In previous novels by Lisa Kleypas we have great love stories with character development. This novel had great potential which made the fact it wasn't great or entertaining all the more disappointing.  There is no character development in the story to allow us to realize the character's motivations and Gabriel and Pandora  remain flat one dimensional characters; Gabriel most of all.  Why does Gabriel suddenly fall so in love with Pandora? We never really get to know Gabriel and the brief glimpses into his inner dialogues even leave me more confused. He likes wild sex with his mistress and wants a proper wife...so why he suddenly falls desperately in love with Pandora after one meeting is a mystery. There is very little character development or dialogue between Gabriel and Pandora, and all we are left with is one redundant sex scene after another. I would have enjoyed instead actually reading how these two interacted with each other,  in the world they lived in, and more interaction with their familes. The last chapters of the story were the most bizarre as suddenly we have a terrorist story appear which makes no sense except to perhaps setup the plot of the next novel by Ms. Kleypas? I have no clue.  I loved the story "The Devil in Winter" and it is one of my all time favorite novels. This book was disjointed in its storyline and confusing, and sadly to write a major disappointment.
725983
This book reads like a rough draft. It seemed like the author couldn't decide what the book was supposed to be about. Some parts read like a bland but likeable story about an owl wandering the forest at night, while other parts of the book are poetic but plotless descriptions. Somehow the book just doesn't flow. But my toddler is 18 months and he doesn't care about the story anyway. The illustrations are beautiful and he is mesmerized by the pictures. We just flip through the pages now and talk about what we see on the page. I haven't bothered to read the story to him since the first time we looked at the book together.
978506
The first few hundred pages of Chabon's THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY are fantastic.  I live in New York City and work with a lot of Jews, so the historical premise of the book is profound to me.  Chabon's characters are very real and interesting to boot.  Unfortunately, around page 350-375, the book begins to lag.  I mean REALLY lag.  I was in love with this book, but I eventually gave it up altogether!  Mind you, the book is very, VERY long and Chabon is far too wordy.  There were about four words every page that I didn't know the definition of.  It's good to expand the reader's vocabulary, but not to this excess.  If I had looked up the definition of every word I didn't know, it would have taken me a year to read.

This novel is simply too epic for its own good...and I'm still not fond of comic books...and I still can't understand why Joe finds Rosa attractive.
2354662
I really wanted to LOVE this book. The fact is I couldn't finish it. It was good, but there is something that drags in the writing. One day I may try and pick it up again - like I said, I want to LOVE this book - the premise of it really tickles the senses.

The cover art is fantastic, the banter that we get in the beginning of the book kept me going - then the banter stopped and the ultimate deceptions begin...

If you like characters who lie, deception to the max, and to be strung along until the last moment - this book is for you.

Apparently I'm just not up to the task of dealing with this spy thriller at the moment. The deception seems to drag on a bit after where the curtain should have closed and the next act should have began.
99847
My husband and I were so excited to see that Virgil and Cole continues to live on even after Robert B. Parker has passed away.  However, our excitement was short lived after we got about half way through this book.  Some how a story that started out with great promise pretty much lost it's way.  Although the author did a good job of capturing our beloved characters dialogue, the story line grew weaker and weaker.  Robert B. Parker's stories never have a climax that lasts a long time, but his books always ended with a powerful punch that was worth the wait. The climax of this book was a big disappointment and lacked a satifying knock-out punch.  I love Virgil and Cole and hope they will live on,  and no matter what I'll keep buying books about them just to keep these two memorable characters alive.  I just hope the next book will have a better ending.
561431
I was SO excited about this book, but it just doesn't live up to the excitement. Yes, the illustrations are great and the wording is sweet, but there is no substance to this book.  As a teacher, a librarian, and an adoptive mom, I felt like there was something seriously lacking
4854910
If you want Otis's fantastic song (sitting by the dock of the bay) and his other top 2-3 songs buy this CD.  But the rest of the songs are only OK.
2246284
I've always liked the Cat series, but I think it has stagnated a bit. I mean, I'm getting a little tired of the "poor little whipping boy" routine.  The series has GREAT potential, it just hasn't lived up to it yet.  Too many loose ends get created and never really brought to a conclusion.  Like Why he has DRACO's logo, who's his father, or just who ARE the Others and where did they go?  Maybe in the next book (if there ever is one) the author will get around to tying up these loose threads...
3667846
This book has incredibly cute illustrations and my son was so excited when we got this one to go with his other Hello Genius manners books, but the text isn't the greatest.  All of these manners books are repetitive (which is good for kiddos learning) and I found "Bear Says Thank You" to be a fun read for both my son and I, however this book bores me.  Be ready to say the title of the book on nearly every page.  Despite my negativity toward reading this book my 2 year old son still likes it so I guess it attracts the right audience.
686653
I really wanted to enjoy this book. It came highly recommended from someone I trust. However, I really couldn't get a handle on it. I finished it because I kept hoping it would get better and because I wanted to know what happens, but it just kind of never got there. There are quite a few unanswered questions that still bug me months later. Sebastian Faulks is a brilliant author, but this is not his best work.
89943
Whenever I read this book to my daughter, she starts fidgeting on my lap and looking around for her other books.  The illustrations are beautiful, but somewhat monochromatic (the hares are brown of course, but there's not much variety of background...).  The other off-putting issue with this book is the one-up-man-ship of Big Nutbrown Hare.  The book may purport to be about unconditional love, but Big Nutbrown Hare makes a point to show Little Nutbrown Hare that he's always going to have the last word and most clever reply.  Based on these two factors, the book rates one star.
4843369
I originally read this when it first came out, then re-read the series when I got the new book (The Crystal City) for Christmas.  This one was not as good as the other books in this series.
The story started off very slow, with a lot of nonsense about Arthur Staurt and Audobon (who could have been left out of the book completely) and birds.  While this was explained somwhat at the end of the book, it was still too much and too slow.  The book does get better near the end, but by that time, there has been too much junk preceeding it to make it seem worthwhile.  The dialogue between Denmark and Gullah Joe is particularly boring and painful to read.
I give this book three stars only because of the characters, which are still great, and the ongoing story of Alvin's quest to build the Crystal City, but it wasn't a great story on its own.  If you've read the other books in the series, this one is worth reading just to continue the story, but just barely.  I hope the next book can return to the great stories from the previous books, if not, then I hope it will at least be the last in this series.
3373781
Our toddler is obsessed with Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaur so we had really high hopes for this one. It just sort of fell flat for me. It isn't quite as inventive as her other books and didn't engage our little one as much as Oh My- we'll stick with that one and pass this one along to a friend.
2232874
I tried really hard to enjoy this book: it has all the ingredients for something amazing. Sadly, I couldn't get over Tess's actions and the slightly awkward character development. The story line and plot are great, and the idea of everything is fresh and exciting- which is wonderful in such a saturated market, but the characters' actions and thoughts were a bit too unbelievable to me.

I love that it was a free book, and will definitely be trying another book of hers, but this one just didn't hold my attention long enough to finish.
2382752
To start out, I am a huge fan of Koontz's books, and my husband has read quite a few himself.  When this came on Amazon as a pre-order for $9.99, my husband jumped all over it because he just couldn't pass it up (between the two of us we have close to 700 books requiring an entire wall in one of our rooms.  We're self-proclaimed book nerds).  So disappointing.  Like others have said, the character development was there, and there were a lot of interesting ones.  But as I was reading and got closer to the end, I kept thinking "I still have no idea what's going on".  There was never a closing of any sort.  I still have no idea why some of the characters were in the book at all-they seemed extraneous, like Koontz had a really good reason for them being there, but then he forgot about them.  The stories didn't seem to mesh at all.  I feel like he either rushed the end of the book or forgot to write the last couple chapters.  I realize it's his m.o to leave you guessing to the end, which is why most of his books are page-turners, but this was lacking.  I'm glad we only paid $10 for it. I've liked his other books but I'd sell this one in a heartbeat.  We got Steven King's "Under the Dome" at the same time and I enjoyed that one much much more.
2312207
I really wanted to love this book.  I really did, but I was somewhat disappointed.  I was looking forward to Napolean's story immensely.  I felt like he was short changed in this book.  It seemed as if only about 1/3 of this book focused on Napolean and his destiny, Brooke.  I think that there were too many points of view going on here to fully flesh out Napolean and Brooke's characters and relationship. There was such potential to really, really, pull on your heartstrings with this couple.  But in my opinion it just fell short.  There was very little time spent on Napolean and Brooke as a couple.  By the end of the book we are to believe that they are in love but I just didn't see the necessary relationship build up to buy into that.  A lot of this book was used to set up the next book which is Nachari's story.  I look forward to it and hope that a majority of the book will focus on the relationship with his destiny and less of all of the side stories going on.  With that being said I just felt that Napolean, The King and leader of the House of Jadon deserved more for his story!