Lisa Renee Joness writing is like a bag of Lays potato chipsyou cant just read ...
588198
Lisa Renee Joness writing is like a bag of Lays potato chipsyou cant just read one. If you start at the beginning, youll find yourself mindlessly hitting one-click on the next novella, desperate to find out whats happening in the lives of these unforgettable characters. Im not sure what she has, but shes got itin spades. You just get wrapped up in the intricate story lines, the amazing character development, and you just want one more taste of the smoking hot sex between the combustible couples who blaze across the pages of her fiction.

As Saras traveled her journey, weve met amazing charactersdangerous characters, and with her, found her one true loveartist Chris Merit. Now they are getting married.

In this last glimpse of the lives of the characters first found in If I Were You, when Sara first came across Rebeccas mysterious journals, we travel to Paris with Sara and Chris to settle the loose ends left by Ambers death. While Sara is saddened by reminders of his painful past, shes also overjoyed with the signs of how far they have moved forward as a couple. Instead of reaching for pain, hes reaching for her.

We see some of our favoritesMark and Crystal, Chantal and Rey, and there are hints of the series to come with Ella.

But at the end, were left with the amazing connection between the two charactersSara and Chris. I think thats why we read these books. We all dream of having someone who is consumed by uswho thinks of our needswho takes us as we are, unconditionally. Thats what these books give to me, at least. A hint of a love affair where your partner is your forever-lover, forever connected only with youforever destined to be your soul-mate. Realistic? No. The escape I read for?

Definitely!

Keep it up, Lisa.
4829936
This book feels like it was written by two different people. I almost quit reading it about half through as all of the characters are unpleasant. The main 2 women are friends who don't really like each other both self centered amoral women ready to make "friends" to sell cocaine laced face cream in order to rip them off. Of course all the women are stereotypes of rich bitches. And the few men are horrible. Fast forward to the last few chapters and it all changes including side characters like the alcoholic mother from hell suddenly goes into sainthood for the daughter she seems to hate until those magic last chapters.  The bitch who hosts the book group, which seems to just be thrown in to gather a few more readers, is a budding artist who finds romance and one husband turns into a prince.  It isn't worth the space it takes up on a hard drive.
576569
So I happened upon this book through an instagram trail and since Im a stripper, I wanted to give it a shot. I admittedly only downloaded the sample because I always do that first and almost always finish the sample and go directly to buy the book. Im an author. I like to give other authors money!

I will admit the actual writing is well crafted. But the characters are awful. Both of the men are completely unlikeble. I guess its possible that the author did this on purpose. Theres a lot of trash men in the world after all. But it makes me sad to think a women wrote such mysoginistic characters. The women are described the way Ive come to expect sleazy male authors to write. The character I suspect you're supposed to find relatable and amusing jokes that People just kill strippers for fun, right? Sadly, thats kind of true but I don't think dead women are funny.

Id almost think this author is a stripper and wrote these male characters like this on purpose. However, she clearly didn't even do basic research. She couldve gone into any club and paid a stripper $50 to spend a few minutes just asking basic questions. Strippers are not taking out the trash and locking up. And when does this girl sleep? She works the day shift, leaves to have sex with a customer and then comes back to work the night shift and it says she also does pole tricks and also has a torn ACL? Im not going to say no stripper does extras or sees clients outside the club. Its more rare than people think, but some girls do it. But this schedule and situation is physically impossible. Of course considering the awful way she talks about the murder victim, shes probably too cheap to pay to do research. But considering that being a stripper is a great job for someone trying to publish enough books to stop stripping, she couldve also just read a couple books written by strippers and called it a day. Considering the amount of research Ive recently done just to write about hockey players, this is just really lazy.
4113433
I'm so disappointed. I was really looking forward to reading this memoir. I love movie star autobiographies but this fast read hardly qualifies as an autobiography. Instead Shirley Jones repeats stories not only from the book she previously published with her current husband (Shirley and Marty: An Unlikely Love Story)but also from step-son David Cassidy's autobiography (Could It Be Forever?). I read the entire book in about three hours and was very let down by the time I was through. I felt like Shirley and her collaborator met for coffee a few times, and then the collaborator used the other books to fill in the gaps. And Shirley's sex life? Okay, I get that she wants to "celebrate" older people's sexuality but puh-leez! All I can figure is that the publisher wanted her to put it sensational items. The best part of the book were the few tidbits she shared about other actors. Really and truly a disappointment. I think the most disturbing part to me was the story about her son Ryan and his drug problem. I may have interpreted it wrong, but it sounded like she put him into a drug rehab place where he couldn't have contact with the family. A YEAR AND A HALF LATER, one of her other sons decided to see what was up with Ryan and pretty much sprung him. For a woman who claims she's all about her kids, it shocked me that she wasn't the one to check on Ryan. Maybe she's leaving big pieces of the story out so she could squeeze in all of the sexual tidbits, but it really bothered me that she did that. She sounds either completely out of touch with reality or the most shallow person on the planet. Very weird, strange book.
3075920
This is the worst book I have ever read.  I can't keep up with the dialog, the plot is convoluted, it doesn't make any sense.  I had to put it down, and I usually give a book the benefit of doubt, read it until end, but this one I simply could not finish.  I finally just lost interest in the characters and whether they lived or died, whoever the characters were!  Could not follow it.  What was Lisa Gardner thinking when she wrote this awful book? It is definitely not her best work, probably her worst.
3807652
Her verbage makes it like you are talking to an old burned out hippie witch on lots of drugs. This kind of vernacular might work for some people, but not people like me who prefer a bit of decorum in their books. Phrases like "pussy to earth" not only inspire bizarre visual images, but serve to distract the reader; this is a phrase you expect to hear from someone rambling to themselves on the street, at your general direction... but not to anyone in particular.

That being said, I've found some decent information in here that is worth trying to stomach the unnecessary familiarity. If you can deal with it, this might be worth reading. I'm also a bit emotionally cold so... this really just rubs me the wrong way. The information she presents certainly has helped in some aspects, but because I have taken to skimming past all of her somewhat unnecessary personal rhetoric and explanations, in the way you might skim past a blogger's life story to get to the cookie recipe. So all of that being said, her experience might be worthwhile, as she clearly knows her stuff - but I wish she were slightly more aware of the effect certain words can have in the wrong places.

But seriously, "pussy-to-earth" is just as jarring and unexpected as J.K. Rowling deciding to randomly throw in a scene of Harry Potter getting a boner at like.. Belltrix, or something. Just. Really. I like crass, too - I love South Park and Drawn Together as much as any drunken frat boy but it is all about the delivery. You don't expect or really want that kind of language in your spell books. It's not hard to be familiar without being totally unclassy.
4109991
This book really left you with the feeling of WTF?! Apt title, Mr. Lerangis. Otherwise, I don't even know where to begin. I basically didn't like anything about this book. But I didn't hate it. I feel like I have an unformed opinion because is book was so helter-skelter. It was everywhere all at once. You're just constantly shoved into the next problem. Absolute chaos. You don't get to know any of the characters before you're thrust into the next POV. I think I liked MC. The epilogue was really dumb.
24571
I almost want to stop reading these books until they all come out. it's like eating the best cookies or chips and you can only have one but you have to eat the whole bag anyway. This is what Reams and Kats story was like. Really intense. And the middle of the book just smacked you right in your face. well let's just say I still have my kindle. Nash has hit it every time with her writing. There's no bull or stupid drama. Ream really has a messed up past. And Kat does everything she can to protect herself and her secret. But she just can't take it anymore and that's when the trouble and heartache begins. I don't want to spoil the book. But grab your bum cause it's going to be one heck of a rollercoaster ride.
404434
I got as far as page twelve and realized that I cannot endure the writing enough to continue reading. The story is told from each character's point of view.  I am not entirely against narratives or journals, if they are done well, are interesting and are in character.  However each character sounds as if they they are *speaking/writing* as the same person, the author's 3rd person narrative voice.  For instance Kyle's account as he is telling it goes like this:  ' I said with a dark, mirthless chuckle.'  or  'I said, running my hands through my hair.'  or 'she said incredulously.'  When a person is journaling or speaking, they do not talk like a 3rd person describing the action.  This is fine, a very acceptable style for 3rd person narrative, but not by each character, who even if journalling would never write that way.  We are not talking about a character who is a linguistically fluent Brit here, but a drug addict out of rehab.  This is bad writing and I won't continue with this author.
716918
Worse than potato chips! LOL I started with "just one" and could not put it down until I was done. I had to eat ... I mean read... the whole thing!  Lisa's writing style and frankness are the marks of a first-rate author. There's so much here to touch and enlighten the reader, told with humour and love--not only for her family but also for the greater human family we all share. Bravo.
2962183
No real characters. As someone else said, neither the men, the boys, or the women are given any unique personal characteristics.

Use of crude language/profanity was awkward. Like a teenager trying too hard. Anne, the protagonist and wife/mother of a teenager, uses phrases such as saying something "tastes like ass", or is so thrilled when her husband "grins, the one that says 'that's my bitch'" (after which he "smacks her on the ass"). Frequently mentally refers to herself as "cool", or "bad ass", or tells you that she "rocks". Comes across as contrived and juvenile.

That particular that's-my-bitch-ass-smack exchange btw was the exciting conclusion to the scene in which Anne explains in detail for an entire page how and why they are all to wash their hands before eating from now on. Another "bad ass" "traffic cop" (her own words) style monologue occurs later where she announces everyone has to brush teeth after every meal (actually an extremely bad idea since it will wear off your enamel, which is temporarily softened by the acids in foods). Frequently there are scenes where the two women get very excited about the prospect of... cooking a meal later that day. Or packing a trailer. And how amazing they're going to be at it. High fives and fist bumps between them. The men grin excitedly  in response. Apparently over the moon at the idea of functional humans as wives. It's just weird. If it's sexist, I'm not sure if it's more patronizing to men or women.

Moments like those are presented as the pinnacles of excitement for most of the book. Other than seeing a few people breaking into a few neighboring houses, and eveeeennntuallly leaving their own house at the very end of the book, that is about the extent of the action, if you can call it that.

The rest is dinner details, lunch details, breakfast details, freezer details, fridge details, prep storage room organization details, vehicle packing details; and oft repeated thoughts on shtf and prepping in general.

If that sounds thrilling to you, you will enjoy this book. If you are looking for characters or plot look elsewhere.

I was intrigued to read a SHTF book written by a female author. And was a bit disappointed then to have the female protagonist sounding like she was written by a teenage boy, or by someone who views "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" as their personal bible. A lot of harping on women (or "chicks" or "girls") being a certain way, and men being a certain way. Yes, both have their differences and their strengths, but it's just weird when people seem to be obsessing over it to a point that is manufacturing these traits and harping on them for the sake of it. It limits both men and women in a wishful fictional manner that is just not realistic but rather seems to reflect some fictional role play fantasy on the part of the author.
2872787
tried to read,but too wordy that moves the story line sloooow,,authors obsession with her and the buddy's  ethnicity is a little much,,her chip on her shoulder is obvious,,
1252612
Where do I begin?!?!?!?!
I am on page 103 and still deciding weather to finish or not.  This series is like eating a juicy red apple and gobbling it up to find a hoard of worms in the middle.  I want to remember the joys of reading the first 2 books and not sure I want to spoil that with the last book.  I do want to finish the story and I am going to try and read some more.  I am all about twists and turns and people dying so I am ok with whatever ending Roth throws at me.
What I am most disappointed in is the writing style.  This book reads as if someone totally different wrote it.  I am ok with the story point of view going from one character to the other.  BUT thereare a lot of:  "I say, _____" sentences instead of things like  "I blurted"  "I huffed"  "I said in anger"  "Sadly I said"  Reluctantly I said"  etc.  Where was the feeling?  A lot of short sentences.  I want to hear how Tris feels kissing Four.  Not:  "we kissed.  We pulled apart".  I want:  "I still had butterflies every time our lips meant...."  These emotions which made you fall in love with Tris and Four in the first two books make me fall in love with these characters.  I teared up reading their story in the other book, I wanted to fight for them.  Now I am just reading a blocky, black and white story.
TO ROTH:  I am sorry and feel as if I'm betraying you and your works writing this review.  Keep your emotions and feeling in your writing.  This books feels as if someone totally different wrote it so if someone told you to do this, don't do it again!  Go with your gut.  Good luck with your next writing and I will read it and hope it's better than this book.
1486458
*Spoilers ahead*

First off I am docking one point for the writing style, one point for the ending, and one point for the way this book made me feel.

What do I mean by writing style?

Mostly it was the way Mary Kubica writes when the characters converse.  She would have them talking in present tense and past tense.  Very confusing!

For example (from the book),
She says that at her home, it was always fake.  Real trees were messy.  I tell her to pick it out, whichever one she wants.  She points to a sixty-foot fir.

"Try again, " I say.  But for a moment I stare it down and wonder if I could.

The entire book is written this way!  One character would talk in past tense, while another character would talk in present tense.  I found myself reading the first few pages over again, thinking "oh no, not one of these books."  I hate hate hate when authors write this way!  This aspect of writing is a huge pet peeve of mine.

Despite the way the characters converse, the story grabbed my attention and I read the book - cover to cover - in about 4 hours.  I am a fast reader.  I predicted the ending about halfway through.  I predicted she was pregnant.  I predicted Colin would die.

The ending. I docked a point for this.  Colin dies.  Why? Why does the author kill him?  I try to reason these things in my head and see from the author's point of view.  Colin was a good guy.  He had good intentions.  He does not force Mia/Chloe to sleep with him. He thinks he is saving her from the bad guys.  Why does Mia put the gun in his hands?  Why don't they go somewhere else less cold?? He has a truck, they have some money, they could go somewhere else and not freeze to death.  I don't understand the logic behind this and I was frustrated.

Life is already sad and depressing.  I read books to escape the depression that consumes the news and every day life.  This book left me feeling very sad and depressed.  I will probably not recommend this book to anyone.
585961
I wanted to like this book so much. I had heard such good things about it. Specifically, I'd read that Jen L was like David Sedaris with pearls and a super cute handbag and I had to get this book, because David Sedaris is god.  I have to say that Jen L is definitely no David Sedaris, with or without handbag or pearls. The first chapter was fine, a few giggles, then the next chapter had less, by the third, I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Maybe it was the footnotes or the typesetting, which made you think you were reading e-mails, or maybe it was the unrelenting whining that got to me. I couldn't finish it. I thought I got the wrong book, but no, the David quote was right there in the front. What a disappointment.
3883923
OMG, this love triangle is so unbelievable!  Is Delores the only one having sex in this family?  What is Hannah waiting for??

Who accidentally kills a pedestrian, and then comes home and discusses a new cookie instead of what just happened????  The amount of cookie talk is way over the top.  And too many recipes, some of which are a real stretch---who would jump through all those hoops to make toast, bacon and egg in a muffin tin????  And who jumps out of bed and makes cookies?

If I had purchased this book, I would have felt cheated.  But I get them from the library, and I still felt cheated of my time.  I found myself skimming over conversations about the cats, recipes, bridal plans, etc.  If this author doesn't step up her game, and get Hannah and Norman married, and doing something interesting, she is going to lose her readers quickly.  I didn't even care that it abruptly ended.  I was put out of my misery.

I, for one, will not be reading Miss Fluke's other mystery that is being republished.  I won't subject myself to any more of this stitled conversation.

I'm sure, if history is any indication, the  "former hooker with a heart of gold" new to Lake Eden will be hired by Hannah or someone else in the next "feel-good" story.  Time for this series to grow up and smell the coffee (and not at the Cookie Jar).

This was several hours of my life I'll never get back . . .
1894673
I love and hate Lisa Edward. Yea I said that and its the truth and only those who have read this exceptional book will understand why.  First off Lisa is an amazing writer.  She has a way with words that is simply beautiful.  She makes you fall in love with the characters, but alas here is where the problem lies.  I fell in love with both Riley and Cole. How can I decide. I began Songbird Caged fully team Riley.  I spoke in great lengths about my anger over the prospect of a potential love triangle. Damn Lisa put me through the ringer but she did it in such a way that I am now madly in love with Cole.  Allainces have switched..TEAM COLE!  This book was brilliant. It had everything I need in a book, drama, angst, and a swoon worthy man..simple perfection.  My heart broke so many times  and just when I though it was finally healing .BAMthe cliffhanger!  There are not enough words to say how much I truly loved this book, I read it in one day! Could not put it down and then almost throw my kindle when it was over, I NEED THE NEXT BOOK NOW!  I need to know who she ends up with, Do you take bribes????