So promising, yet disappointing
341737
I purchased this guitar from my local GuitarCenter a while back, to learn to play via the Rocksmith 2014 deal for Xbox 360.  Having played for over 200 hours now, I can say that these guitars can offer value, but only if you receive a suitable model.  The variant that I play has had numerous issues.  Like many, I have found my guitar impossible to tune, not just to stay in tune.  For my model, a guitar tech recommended replacing the nut with a higher quality one (GraphTech TUSQ XL).  While this has helped in general to reduce the lack of tune on a per string basis, it has not fixed all my ills.  In fact, no amount of adjustment to the intonation of the strings has yielded any success at tuning the guitar.  Additionally, I had to manually repair a solder joint for the tone control, which apparently was never properly soldered (this isn't a major problem, to me, but it could be to others less familiar with the process).

For beginners, I would suggest obtaining a used Stratocaster or similar off eBay or Craigslist before recommending another Epiphone.

Pros:  Price, Style
Cons:  Workmanship, Defective Components
3047306
First the good news. This is an interesting concept. I was asked to review a book by a fellow indie author, which I agreed to, and ended up reading what amounts to an episode of a series, rather than an actual book. In other words, it's not really long enough to be considered a book. A novella? Possibly. But the concept has to do with a young man in search of his sister who disappears in a flash of light right in front of his eyes, and he goes on to investigate evidence of intelligent life on earth long before cavemen. It has potential.

That's the good news. Unfortunately, the execution left a lot to be desired. From the get-go, I was confused. The story starts at the peak of the girl's disappearance, with only the girl's name being mentioned. It's another page and a half before you see anyone else's name, and then you realize it's a dream sequence, and then even though there are two men mentioned, only one is identified.

There's not enough character development; in other words, I need to care more about the characters. And there is the usual bugaboo of indie publishing: the woeful need for an editor! Grammar and punctuation problems abound.

Not only that, but there are some structural issues. I loved the place where the main character says, "I would do anything to get her back." Then the woman he's talking to says, "But would you do anything to get her back?" and he says, "Yes, I'd do anything to get her back." Reminds me of Monty Python....

I wish J.D. Stonebridge the best, but I think his best road to success is going to involve an editor. Best wishes.
2010092
I really enjoyed "The Center of Everything" and looked forward to another good read. Unfortunately, "The Rest of Her Life" didn't deliver like I expected. Moriarty's writing style is still great and makes the story move along at a fast clip, but the interesting ideas that began the story didn't seem to go anywhere.

The book's main characters are Leigh (the mother and the one on whom the book is focused), Kara (Leigh's daughter), Justin (her son), and Gary (her husband). Within the first few pages, we learn that Kara has killed another teenage girl during a careless moment while driving. It all seemed very promising at first, as the chapters alternated between describing the family's attempts to cope after the accident and explaining Leigh's difficult childhood. The awkwardness between Leigh and Kara, especially, appeared to foreshadow a climax with important revelations about mother-daughter relationships.

But all of this never went anywhere. Leigh is the only well-developed character; all we know about the others is what she feels about them. Kara, in particular, is flat; we never learn much about her except that the accident made her miserable with guilt (big surprise) and that she was practically "perfect" before. Even when Leigh and Kara have a confrontation over the distance between them, neither one has much to say. Are we really supposed to believe that after years of feeling disconnected from her daughter, Leigh has no explanation other than that Kara is more "fortunate" than she was?

The rest of the book is filled with similarly interesting subplots that have anticlimactic resoloutions (or none at all). Leigh struggles to teach the literary classics to her eighth-grade class, against the wishes of a coalition of religious parents. Justin has trouble connecting with his father and is bullied by his peers. Pam (Leigh's sister) has a son in Iraq. Kara's best friend gets breast implants and Leigh goes on a pointless rant about beauty coming from within. And throughout the book, Leigh constantly worries about the town turning against her daughter, but nothing ever happens (Moriarty "resolves" this plotline by having a friend explain to Leigh that no one is judging her and that everyone really does feel sorry for Kara).

Overall, the best word to describe the book is simply "anticlimactic". It is filled with conversations and plot points that come to nothing. It only becomes less repetitive and meandering during the last couple dozen pages; endless foreshadowing builds up to quite exchanges of words. It seemed like Moriarty was trying to create a whole world in this novel, like she did with "The Center of Everything", but was prevented from it because she was tethered to the car-accident story. "The Rest of Her Life" was a missed opportunity.
2112272
Oh, how I wanted to love this book. It starts out so promisingly, but by the end, I was shaking my head a lot. It's structured in a dual narrative switching from the present on a horse ranch, run by Cal Crow, a biracial teen and his dad, in the rural West where a homeschooled British teenager, Hope, and her mother, Meredith, an ardent feminist are visiting, to the past in the 1870''s. Naturally, there is attraction between the two teens, but Hope, who has lived a sheltered, rather over-controlled life, may have a hard time getting closer because of her mom. The other narrative is told in the form of a letter from a young English woman, Emily Forsythe, who is traveling to the West Coast to marry a railway magnate whom she has never met. When Emily is the victim of a horrific carriage accident that leaves the rest of the passengers dead, she's unexpectedly rescued by Nate Redfeather, a half-white, half-Native American man who is kind to her but inexplicably refuses to help her be "rescued." Meanwhile, in the present (where Hope is reading this in the ancient diary she discovers at the ranch), Hope and Cal take a day trip and wind up stranded in a cabin, waiting for rescue. As Hope and Cal begin to notice uncanny parallels between their story and that of Emily's, they start to fall in love, but will a tragedy from Cal's past and Hope's mom, thwart their relationship?

What I didn't like:
1. The villains were too, well, vill-ainy. We know from the moment they appear, that they were the designated bad guys. I thought their evilness could have been toned a lot down and still had the desired effect.
2. Too many coincidences! I think the author could have taken out some, and had an equally moving effect. There were just too many exact parallels to let me suspend disbelief.
3. Toward the end, everything got melodramatic to the point where it decreased the connection to the characters for me, not the opposite, though I'm sure that was hardly the author's intention.

What I did:
1. Learning about that particular era and the historical events taking place at the time.
2. Learning about the manners and morals that young women in that period were subjected to.
3. That good ultimately triumphed over evil, even if it was overdone.

Overall, a story with a fascinating parallel love story, but ultimately, didn't work for me because of the over-reliance on "coincidences" and the melodramatic ending.
,
4973425
I am torn over where to begin with this review. The author had the makings of a great book here with a promising plot line and what could have been great characters. Unfortunately, especially in the first half of the book involving Mary and Percy, the characterizations are uneven and undeveloped, and the motivations and actions don't make sense. The second half of the book, involving Mary's granddaughter Rachel, is somewhat better in these regards, or maybe I just got used to the author's writing and filled in the blanks for myself. I was astounded to read that Ms. Meacham was a former English teacher, as her use of similes and metaphors is strained and off-putting, and her failure to correctly provide an antecedent for her many pronouns is rampant. Further, some of her sudden leaps in place and time can be pretty confusing, as they are indicated by nothing at all other than all of a sudden someone else is speaking or the action is taking place somewhere unrelated to what came immediately before.  Maybe these missteps were present because I was reading an ARC, and they will be corrected in the final version of the book. I can only hope so, both for Ms. Meacham's sake and the sake of her future readers. A good editor would have been a godsend for this version that I received.

All that said, I was held by the storyline and the suspense until the last page, and I was never tempted to put the book down and not finish it. I think Ms. Meacham does capture the ambiance of small-town Texas (I grew up in a small town in West Texas myself) and it's entirely believable that there were two or three "ruling" families with immense wealth and property and also great respect from the town. She reveals the secrets of these families in a convincing manner and maintains plenty of suspense along the way. My earlier comments about characterization refer primarily to the fact that the actions of the characters are not sufficiently explained by what we've come to know and understand about them. For example, Mary's willingness to accept the vagaries of fate and not fight for true love does not square with her stubbornness about holding on to Somerset regardless of the consequences. Also, Mary's realistic and straightforward approach to the farm and life in general doesn't lend much credence to her devastating actions taken because of belief in a family curse. Of course, people are complicated and do have blind spots, but somehow the most critical step Mary takes is never justified at all by anything we've come to know about her. And Rachel's final decision regarding her law suit is never explained at all. I've tried to avoid any spoilers in the preceding but I felt that I needed to justify my own statements by giving a few examples.

I also think some family genealogy charts would have been helpful to remember who's in what generation and their relation to the rest of the family.

I hope the final published version of this book will have taken care of all my misgivings, and with that in mind, I recommend this book to anyone who likes a multi-generational tale of passion, suspense, and tragedy.
1232227
Ben Mercer runs away from Oxford to escape his failed marriage. He eventually ends up at a dig in Sparta, which is appropriate, since he's been studying archaeology; maybe he'll actually write a thesis after all? But the dig, like so many small groups are, is fraught with drama. One side says the other people can't be trusted, the other says the same about the first. Nothing is as it seems....

I really wanted to love this book. It's about archaeology, it's set in Greece, the author is a poet, and the book was originally published in England. What's not to love, right? Well, a few things, unfortunately.

The Hidden reminded me, at least in some ways, of that Barry Unsworth book I read earlier this year, Land of Marvels, in that: 1) it pretends to be a mystery/thriller but there's no action in the first half, at least; and 2) it's more about relational drama.

It also has pages and pages of history thrown in in spots, which disrupted the rhythm of the narrative for me. The content was needed for the story to succeed, but I wish it had been integrated more effectively.

I got really irritated by Ben. He's filled with self-doubt and -loathing. The emotional timbre of the book struck me as very adolescent.

A couple notes on format: The Hidden has some very long chapters; I counted one at 50-plus pages. The book doesn't have quote marks -- dialogue is usually prefaced by a dash -- and for the most part is lacking indicators such as he said/she said.

On a more positive note: The Hidden has a strong sense of place. Sparta is kind of a character in the book. It was evocative. Also: The concept for the book is incredibly clever and so much fun. These are really big pros. Unfortunately, though, they didn't outshine the cons for me.

I received this book from the publisher, as part of the TLC book tour. This review originally published on my blog.
3501662
I had seen this in a Brick and Mortar Store before it disappeared from sight. I had always been a big fan of Vampires, especially Dracula and I was intrigued by the Premise.

The cover was not only lush and beautiful, but it was soft to the touch - I admit I took to squeezing the book. And the Feelies are well-presented and added much to the story, with the 'pages' appropriately looking aged and style of newspapers, documents, etc. of the era.

Now to the bad part...

It opens up to a Forward of a man in modern times receiving these items in an attempt for someone to save him, and then it flashes back into Dr. Seward's point of view. His narration voice is actually quite good, a likable character who stayed true to his characterization in the original novel. And it's nice to see a Dracula story from the POV of one of the lesser used characters.

The actual 'Mystery' of the story fails to be be much of a mystery unfortunately - making several common mistakes that would be spotted by even the most casual of mystery fans, if you seen a single episode of Law and Order, you could see the plot twists a mile away. The suspicion was cast so strongly onto one character (It might be obvious who this would be, but I refrained from naming names), especially by a brand new character introduced for this book that it's hard to think of it as anything but a red herring.

There are a few tense moments in the narrative, especially for the younger audience this book was aimed for, especially when accompanied by the lush, and detailed illustrations - but ultimately the whole affair felt unsatisfactory.

In my opinion the worst mistake this book decide besides relying on the 'all sign point to suspect A IMMEDIATELY' is the afterword written in the POV of the Villain. They lacked the visceral grab of Dracula or even the memorable quirks of Renfield, and the explanation for their motives was mostly mealy-mouthed excuses and failed to flesh them out. If this was left out, the readers could easily filled in the details themselves and make the heir much more intriguing.
2817229
I WANTED to like this book.  I liked the idea of the main characters in this book: reluctant vampire with a heart of gold and a vicious streak and a dhampir born of rape to a family and community that shames her for various reasons (unknown father, vampire father, mother with a slut rep, weird abilities, etc) who turns herself into a (vamp) killer out of self-hate and a desire to please her mother.  There was so much potential there, especially for Cat in terms of self-discovery, making peace with her heritage, her attraction to a vampire, and with her mother. Sadly, the author was in such a rush to get the two leads licking each other that the leads weren't given any depth.

The writing, in addition to the pacing, also seemed amateurish in places.  I think this may have been her first novel.  I may give a book from a later series a try.
1591929
Sarah Ahiers debut novel, Assassins Heart, had such a promising premise but fell short in execution. Lea Saldana has been raised in a family devoted to the goddess of death and resurrection, Safraella. As part of a Family of clippers Lea has been trained as an assassin since birth. For Lea, her Family means everything, so when she loses them, her entire world crumbles. As much as I wanted to feel the devastation of such a loss to the protagonist, the story moves far too quickly, never allowing readers a chance to feel anything but a passing sense of sadness. Assassins Heart really needed to take its time at the beginning of the novel, not just as a way to introduce Leas family, but as a way to introduce the world of clippers. I would have liked to have seen this world play out more because even though we are told how the system of assassins and clientele works, I would have liked to have seen it in action.

I enjoy reading about flawed characters and Lea, being only seventeen, is more rash decisions than careful preparation. The problem with this is she has been raised as an assassin, schooled in various skills, and one of these ought to have been strategy. Lea is an example of someone who has little to no understanding of how important a well-thought out plan is. While I will say that Lea does learn a valuable lesson about family by the time the novel finishes, I do wish the book would have spent more time devoted to how she was dealing with her loss internally rather than focusing so much on her overwhelming desire for revenge. The novel could also have used more development in terms of minor characters. Val, Leas secret suitor, is given only two scenes with the protagonist before tragedy strikes and I felt very little for him and Leas relationship as a result. The most interesting secondary character was Leas exiled uncle Marcello, who I really wished we could have spent more time with.

Assassins Heart had a really interesting religious system that I wanted to know more about, but failed to grip me emotionally and could have been more enjoyable if the characters and world were given more time to develop.
924307
I really, really wanted to love this book. The premise of this book made it seem so great and exciting. And Im a huge fan of kick-ass girl characters and sci-fi and fantasty elements. And that cover? Its gorgeous in person. I was so excited when I was offered an ARC of this by the publisher because it was one of the big hyped books of BEA and I wasn't able to get it there. Unfortunately, it wasn't soon after starting the book that I just knew it wasn't going to live up to my expectations.

I had two main problems with this book. The first was that there were so many secrets and just when I thought wed get some really cool explanation or a scene with lots of action, the scene would just cut out and wed move forward to when everything was over or the MC would pass out and wed miss everything. It was frustrating to say the least. Like the author was afraid of coming right out and saying what was happening and what the characters were doing but wasn't afraid to hint at it all. And that might work for some people but it just made me angry and sad that we were missing what could have been some of the best moments.

The other part that really frustrated me was how non-kick-ass the main character ended up being. I wanted to see her fighting and standing up for herself and her friends. But she just ran away or passed out. She was afraid of standing up to her dad or of talking to her mom. She wanted to know what was going on and when she found out and then didn't like it and agree with it, just went along with it anyway. For a while. Until she ran away. And after she was out she made herself forget what she knew. She didn't fight or even try. It was so not what I had hoped going into this book. Plus her back and forth with both boys was additionally annoying. Im not sure if the triangle would have bothered me as much if I wasn't already bothered by the character so much so maybe if the other stuff won't bother you this wouldnt either. I don't know.

I really wish that this had been the beginning of an epic new series like I had hoped but, for me, it just wasnt. Even with everything I mentioned above, I did enjoy it a bit, especially the last part when I couldn't put the book down. I really wish the whole book at been like that. School Library Journal says its for Fans of Veronica Roths Divergent, Marie Lus Legend, and Suzanne Collinss The Hunger Games series. But I really do not see that at all. This book fell short of my expectations and of this description. I didn't get the world-building of Divergent, the high action of Legend, or the depth of characters from The Hunger Games. Id recommend going somewhere else if you loved those books and are looking for something to follow them up with.
4084364
I enjoyed The Bookseller for its window into Parisian life and for the background it provided of the bookstall owners. I've seen so many photographs of the bouquinistes, yet this is the first time I've read anything of their history. It was fascinating.

Unfortunately, the rest of the book wasn't on par with its insights into Paris and one of its institutions. Having deduced what was happening to the booksellers and why very early on, I wondered how long it would take Hugo Marston to put the pieces together. Too long, as it happens. Moreover, Marston himself never really clicked as a main character for me, and neither did his friend Tom Green. Both have promise, but both lacked that indefinable spark that would bring them to life.

Now that I've said all that, I will say that this is a promising debut mystery, and I am more than willing to give the next book in the series a try.
3569671
As a Jaffe fan, I eagerly awaited the release of "The Cousins".  The novel had great potential, with interesting characters and plot twists, but unfortunately they are not revealed with Jaffe's usual style of spinning great family yarns.  Instead, significant events are only referred to in the past, or mentioned in brief descriptive paragraphs about the characters, rather than allowing us to *live* the events and develop the history the characters share.  Disappointing.
3026654
I'm surprised to see all the enthusiastic reviews for this movie, as I found it both beautiful and disappointing.  All three leads are excellent, and the love between Tori and Pauli is palatable and convincing.  The story has enormous possibilities: lost love and a friendship triangle in the setting of a girl's boarding school.  But on a number of points it fails to deliver.
The first is our narrator.  Mouse's monologues, a combination of naval gazing naivete and self-pity, slow the movie to a crawl everytime she appears on screen.  We are supposed to see the lovers through her eyes, but Mouse is such a wan icicle that her presence simply creates an emotional distance between the love story and the audience.  I could not help feeling that the story would have been more interesting told through from the perspective of one of the lovers themselves.
The second is the turn in the plot where Tori and Pauli's relationship is discovered, a plot twist better suited to a 1960s setting than the year 2000.  Tori's reaction and subsequent actions are hard to swallow (if she was so concerned, why did she make out with Pauli on their roof for anyone to see, anyway?). Pauli's denial that the two are gay also seems dated.  (You can't help but wonder what bubble these girls have been living in, to have missed the last 30 years of gay liberation.  Frankly, girls elite schools have been hotbeds of out, politically active, teenage lesbians for the last 10 years, at least.)  The end is similarly disappointing, hinting that adopted children are so emotionally fragile, one bad relationship will send them to the other edge of sanity.
The positives for this film are the strong performances by the two female leads and some beautiful love scenes.  Probably worth seeing for those two factors alone.
3006858
The one thing that you can unequivocally say about John Barnes is that he has exciting ideas.  Great, wonderful concepts that if properly executed would form some classic sci fi novels.  The disappointing part is that he tends to fall flat on his face when it's time for execution.  Especially disappointing are his endings and how he tends to rush through them.
The concepts of A Million Open Doors were very promising.  Humanity spreading out and colonizing worlds.  Loss of communication between the colony worlds.  New technology making instanteous travel possible.  Earth Made of Glass is based on these same concepts, with a subplot of a marriage somehow gone wrong tied in.  It's with that whole subplot that this story degenerates from an exciting tale of cultural prejudice and how technology is stirring up the pot into a story of how two people can no longer relate to each other.  I'm not saying that this doesn't belong in a sci fi story. I'm saying that Barnes' inability to execute that subplot well drags the entire rest of the book down the drain.
I thought the first 100 pages of this book were GREAT!  Very exciting, getting to learn about new cultures and how the instantaneous travel technology was affecting their relations.  Then, Barnes goes into his standard "I will philosophize them relentlessly and they will understand the world better" mode.  For example, three pages of the prophet Ix explaining while it is better to love rather than to hate is a bit much.
I wish that Barnes would collaborate with someone who would teach him to take himself a little less seriously.  Also, it would be great if he could get an editor who would correct his grammer and style.  My pet peeve, in addition to the grammer gaffs noted in other posts, is that Barnes uses parentheses in the speeches given by characters... how the heck does that make it past an editor?  We're not talking about a character whispering an aside to someone during his conversation -- we're talking about an integral part of a speech given by a character!
All in all, the most disappointing part of this novel is the rushed ending.  Barnes rolls out all kinds of different technology, revelations about the personal lives of characters, etc, etc in the last few pages to wrap up some dilemmas.
I love that Barnes doesn't take the easy way out for his characters -- not everything is beautiful in their lives at the end of the book.  I just wish that he could do a better job in writing about his ideas.
2488370
I had very mixed feelings about this book by first time author Kevin Grover. The idea of the plot was excellent, and the prologue set the stage for a great story. But unfortunately the author was given bad advice when told (probably by friends since it was apparently self published) that the final version was ready for publication. Just like the proverbial diamond in the rough, it needs a lot more shaping, cutting and polishing for the potential brillance to be revealed.
The plot line is very straightforward. this is supposedly an account of an attempt by a group of neo-Naxi's to steal gold bullion from Fort Knox to finance their political activities. The author was actually based there during two tours of duty while in the US Army, and thus utilized his knowledge to provide the background for the storyline and create a credible operation logistically. His feel for military routine and procedure provides an authentic feel to the military elements of the story; however, on occasion he assumes reader familiarity with  military terminology (especially acronyms and abbreviations) which need explanation. The central character is Sgt. Tony Wilson, a drill instuctor about to leave the Army and taking classes in criminology. The first few chapters introduce us to Tony and  supply Sgt. Karen Harris, who has become a good friend (in a platonic relationship) while also stationed at Fort Knox. Meanwhile, weapons have been disappearing from several military posts and armories in the region; Tony brings fresh eyes to the investigation while temporarily assigned to assist Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Hooks. Several promising leads turn into dead ends when the suspects are murdered but the investigation gradually uncovers evidence of neo-Nazi involvement. Finally, as you might gues Tony and Karen become increasing attracted to each other but afraid to reveal their true feelings. If it sounds like a plot with a lot of potential, it is.
Unfortunately, the development of the story in this book seems more like  an outline or an early draft. The characters need a lot more development; only Tony is fleshed out in much detail, including such interesting angles as his interest in cooking. The story  proceeds in too linear a fashion, there should be more misdirection and intrigue to hold the reader's interest. Also, as is true of most books from small publishing houses the proofreading and editing appear non-existent; there are a lot of typos and grammatical errors.
The author clearly has potential, on a few occasions there are flashes of brillance and in a few instances he creates real tension regarding the outcome of violent events. My final criticism is the opposite of my usual complaint regarding this genre, this story should be longer. There is a middle ground between the brevity of STRIKE HARD and the mind numbing detail of Tom Clancy's RED RABBIT .... Kevin Grover has a very long way to go before the comparisons with Clancy are apt, but his subject matter is similar and if he continues to write about subjects of which he has this much in depth knowledge he will move in that direction . However, the story's brevity doesn't allow enough time to provide the necessary detail and color in his stories to maintain the reader's interest in the action and the characters. More detail would paradoxically make a somewhat longer book more cohesive and therefore fast moving by involving the reader (as Clancy and Ludlum do) rather than leaving him (or her) only an outside observer.
I do plan to read the sequel, STRIKE SWIFTLY, which involves many of the same characters and hopefully will benefit from the feedback which he received from readers of this novel. The subject matter of that appears quite interesting, and it is worth encouraging new literary voices with the determination and thought provoking plots of Kevin Grover.
1945995
As an avid Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants fan, I was super excited to read Brashares' most recent book, THE HERE AND NOW.

First of all, I want to put it out there that I'm thrilled this book isn't part of a trilogy. Seriously, authors, enough with that. It had many other promising qualities as well: time travel, romance, a leading lady taking control of her destiny...

The time travel plot line was interesting since Prenna is a time traveler from a very bleak future, and is experiencing the present day with fresh eyes. Along with "time native" Ethan, Prenna is given a mission by a mysterious time traveler to undo a tragedy that inadvertently leads to the troubles of the future she comes from.  Prenna's mission isn't made clear to us until almost halfway through the book, with the first half moving slowly through depictions of a future that made time travel the only chance for people's survival.

A few things didn't quite work as well as I hoped. I didn't care enough about Prenna and Ethan to buy their friendship turned to relationship. Prenna's life, interests, and personality weren't developed beyond the community of time travelers, and details about Ethan's motivations were even harder to come by. Also, the frequent descriptions of greedy consumption of natural resources seem a bit like a preachy scare tactic at times, but I felt they were necessary to convey the dire situation Prenna is trying to repair. That being said, after a slow start, I read THE HERE AND NOW quickly, especially the second half when most of the action was taking place.

THE HERE AND NOW had an interesting and mostly engaging plot whose flaws I would have been much more likely to forgive if I hadn't been critiquing it for a review. Overall, I enjoyed the book but it won't be taking the place of FOREVER IN BLUE on my bookshelf.
2308335
The description had me hooked, and I had heard very good things about this book: unfortunately they failed to mention the doggedly immature and wholly indecisive Chloe.  Robinson has a clever way with presenting her characters: although I will admit to being tired of the heroine who literally has little to appreciate but the beauty that accompanies a rather flat personality.  I was hoping to see more of the mother / daughter conflicts: reasons, clues or even some resolution that gave me insight into Chloe's choices or why she would dither until those choices were determined for her.  For someone who `raised herself' her decisions aren't always great ones, and I had to keep reminding myself that no teenager makes good choices all of the time.

Almost instantly we are thrust into a love triangle: Logan the best friend and good guy and Drake the new insta-attraction hottie bad boy that she just met.  I didn't find much to like about Drake: he really was flat in development and all of his "bad boy" qualities seemed to come only from the fact that he has tattoos, is in a band, goes through girls like Kleenex and doesn't want to commit to anyone or anything.  Logan had a few more positive attributes beyond his long-term friendship: patience, honesty and a clear way of presenting his tender and caring side.

It felt to me like a resetting of many of the popular "teen focused" stories that tend to pop off into "Team X" and "Team Y" groups - as readers pull for one boy or the other.  Sadly, it also fell into that sort of feel with conversation, situations and romance: the characters did not, despite my wanting them to, speak to me with conviction or the solidness I would hope for.  With a few steamy sex scenes - this book is definitely on the higher edge of a YA / NA story in terms of content, but lacking those tweaks to characters and plotting that would make it a great book.  As it is, this is a book that kept me reading: I was more curious to see who Chloe would choose, and to see how she justified her decisions than rooting for either male in the story.  It didn't make the level of must read for me, but there will be people who will adore this story, particularly fans of teen protagonists and love triangles.

I received an eBook copy from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.