The plot is kind of contrived
355832
You know whats going to happen, you can see it coming. But it is a good read. The story is fairly well written.
775686
The character development is just not believable, and while the build up of passion is good, the plot speeds along with little to no concern for any kind of logic. A wounded man who swears off marriage forever decides to marry this woman after 2 or 3 days?  And the fact that he swore off children after what happened to him - that just makes no sense to me. I am a romance reader and this plot seemed to contrived, even for me.
3482251
The plot kind of gets lost. I was expecting better.
645189
I'm not a sci-fi reader, so my review might be skewed.

The plot line was a bit too much--too convoluted. Too many things happen at once. Two normal people, who have never met, are brought together as brother and sister. They can change back from normal folks to demons, then angels, then everything rolled into one.
The ending bothered me because, well, there wasn't one. They got through this challenge, but we're led to believe that all that conflict, kidnappings, murders and mayhems (not to mention bombs going off) was just the beginning. I don't need a happy ending (although I prefer one) but I do want a resolution.

Writing style:  Personally, I think it could have been more of a show me the story, instead of so much. This could have been the catalyst I needed to more understanding of the plot line. The formatting was rough. Paragraphs went on forever without a break. That might not have been entirely the author's fault.  (I'm getting used to Kindle formatting.) I think a smoother narrative would have been the order of the day.

I found enough interest in the story, though, to give it a three star rating. I might have to try another one of the author's works to better judge.
199161
Well-written with the plot structure and flashbacks that cause the reader to have to put the pieces together like a puzzle. Its plot is weird and rather disturbing, though, plus I didn't like some of the language.  I'm not recommending it to friends because it was just a little too weird.
9196
Plot interesting. I am not sure how to even describe the descriptive writing.  It was almost as though the writer was trying to tell an actor how to portray the character on the screen. Weird somewhat awkward expression of what is going on in a characters heads at times. Since the reader doesn't know background situations and relationships between characters  (for example Jake and Terrell), there was often a sentence or two which  would try to elucidate the chemistry between them which again was awkward. Somewhat unbelievable situations arise toward the conclusion of the story. Not sure why I finished it.  Wanted to make sure the dog was safe.
2135713
It should be noted that it says a lot about an author's potential that he manages to keep the reader through a ridiculous and far-fetched plot. The idea behind the story; that Eleanor got pregnant in her first encounter with Henry in the French court, around an year before her divorce would already be a hard sell, it becomes even more so if you add to it the idea that her sister would be able to impersonate her through months with the aid of some make up without anyone being any wiser. Some of the characters are reasonably interesting (mostly Eleanor, unsurprisingly); but it becomes harder and harder to deal with it as the plot progresses defying all logic. At least, it is mostly written in a way that you don't suffer overmuch for trying to finish it in spite of the plot.
(Although that might be because I read it on kindle, therefore I had no idea the whole story revolved around that and kept waiting for something more reasonable later on - in print, I'd never have such foolish hope...)
4244805
The plot is pretty interesting, but I have a hard time with the writing.

The difficulty I have is that all the characters sound the same. They all have the same "voice." It feels very detached.

To give an example, a quote from the book about the hard-assed, dictatorial police chief on his way to work:

"He bid good morning to the first grade detective that was assigned as his driver and immediately got onto his cell phone. He called his office with specific instructions; to have his top council - the same group of men that met with him the last time [the reporter] came to the office - report there forthwith."

The only reason we know that the top cop is dictatorial and mean is from some previous scene, where we're told as the audience that it is so.

I think the pitfall the author falls into is telling us about characters, rather than showing us - that is, excess narrative, not enough voice. If you're describing a cynical cop, let's hear them say something cynical, rather than just telling us that's how he is.

Most of the good guys sound like strait-laced boy scouts, while the villain is a plain egomaniac who can't stop bragging (through detached narrative) about how brilliant he is. They feel shallow.

The fun part for me in reading police procedurals is getting the interior voice of cops, who have a hard job and do their best at it. The author clearly has enough knowledge to write a great police book, and I hope he hones his craft a bit in the "basics" of writing fiction to make it more interesting to read.
4405687
Story ploded on a bit and the twist was a bit far fetched .
3330847
Seventy year old men are being murdered. There must be a connection, but what is it and why are these murders being committed? This is the problem set for the police in this mystery. The plot is passable, but not particularly believable. The conclusion is contrived and reaching it is painful. No character can act without first rehashing his life and pondering the mysteries of the universe. This makes for slow going and unless you enjoy the thoughts of neurotics, it is very boring.
1274649
Loved the romance between the two main characters, but I found the plot to be overly contrived. Specifically the Montesangre bit stretched the limits of belief.

The different romance plotlines are great though.
4095875
This is a somewhat difficult book to review,  it is a relatively bleak story of two characters in 1870 during the later days of reconstruction Texas involving a very moral Texas State policeman,  and an almost desperately amoral prostitute moll of sociopath.  It is told from their alternating points of view.

While the plotting is very good, the coincidences are jarring, the characterization is fine while action is going on yet is sketchy and contrived feeling when we see the internal life of the characters, especially the female POV character is unconvincing and their background details are hard to bear.  The fact that the heroine is a completely unexplained math genius whose skill has no bearing on the plot is typical of the weirdness.

Also for a book so clearly thoroughly researched it is hard to bear the strange oversights.  Travel details both in duration and, even more disconcertingly direction, are hard to take seriously.  Cities and towns are ahistorical in feel.  Being a native Houstonian who basically grew. up in the vicinity of much of the action made it fell very awkward.  I don't want to get into specifics and thus spoilers but. Suspension if disbelief was at times impossible to maintain.

Without the anachronism, the flaws of the book would, in spite of Ms. Kent's considerable would make this a weak four star.  But the anachronistic period setting combined with oddly troubling geography knock it down to three.
2138890
I thought the plot was a little bit thin, but the main characters were generally interesting.  The ending did feel contrived..
3897918
The film goes along well until the moments of revelation and reveal, and then the plot becomes contrived - it's a bit incredulous that the characters that loathe each other so much would suddenly fall so quickly and willingly into each other's arms and hearts.

The fault is not the actors', it's the script
3322881
This one seemed a little too contrived.  While the writing is polished, the plot suffered from too many painful twists.
1466596
Isn't the plot too contrived?  Lots of pairs in this story, twins, stay at home opposite sex parents etc, making the plot predictable, more so than a st Louis earthquake.  Soapy.
241293
The theme seemed a bit contrived and pushed in order to tie things up at the end.