Not very well written and the young woman is not ...
597493
Not very well written and the young woman is not a sympathetic character. I've actually met her and she's very intense.
1128759
Interesting story premise but not well written.  Dialog is weak and relationships not very believeable.
4367914
This book has a decent enough plot, and good potential characters. It needs however, a good editor and a reworking before its ready. Way too many "I" statements. The writing style is neither smooth nor mature. It lacks compelling beautiful writing, more of an technical writing. It is a filled out synopsis.
The good thing is the author seems to have lots of friends willing to put a good review in. Its good to have friends.
I honestly thought this was a young new writer's first attempt at writing not a college professor and a pro screen writer.
3859378
Well, being as though the story is told by an illiterate woman who'd only began to read at around 17, the book is pretty poorly written, and at times it is downright unreadable (Inlis U r in pree skol.)It is a sub-par read, and although some would say it is inspiring, it's just an average tale of abused black youth. Maybe you enjoy hearing EXPLICIT accounts of a father raping his daughter, down to the point of how her body reacts to his movements. Sometime too gritty and foul to be considered artistic. It's definatly something you must check out at some point in your life... just check it out of a library...

Borrow... NO BUY!
2219876
I'm definitely not the right audience here: it's a sad story, but the writing is far too young for an adult.
1496715
The idea of the book was nice, but the writing lacked finesse. The parts that were meant to build up seemed to use a lot of repetitive wording which then made it harder to get through. An editor should have made some changes as much of the book sounded as if it was written by a young adult with very little experience and imagination.
629765
. . . .I do not think this author is capable of writing that is not a FIVE STAR DELIGHT
229470
With an interesting premise, characters who elicit sympathy and a romance included "Forbidden" should have everything it needs to be a well received novel in the YA genre. Unfortunately it misses due to lack of writing skill and flow.

The characters suffer from lack of insight into their motivation and lack of reader sympathy toward them. They are not well developed enough with believable back story to bring them forward with the plot. While the supernatural protagonists have more life to them the human characters are just flat and uninteresting.

However, this novelist shows the beginnings of a good talent if she can rein it in and keep the story intact and in check. The story flow is one of the biggest problems. Getting from point A to point B was a zigzag of tangents off into points not needed.

I will read the next in the series, however, because I do think the author is going to improve. The writing toward the end of the novel was much better than the beginning.

Read time: 3 hours

Karen Bryant Doering,
Parent's Little Black Book
3021386
I don't typically write bad reviews of anything, but could hardly get through four chapters before I decided I'd had enough.  This fairy tale is meant more for young teens than adults, with the conversation between the characters reading more like the 21st century than long ago Ireland!  In my opinion it is poorly written.  Sad because the description and reviews made me think this would be so much more.  I wish I hadn't spent the money on it.
3084754
After reading the book blurb I was expecting more and I was really excited to read this book. Something didn't click for me with this book. I usually enjoy young adult novels and the coming of age stories. This book was written really simply and the characters were so far removed from reality that it was hard to read this book. I felt the author was trying to write this book for very young people and it came across as bad writing and planning. I did enjoy the mystery slash suspense of the story. The author did write an interesting story and I am going to try the next book in the series...hopefully it will be written better.
143101
This book had a lot of potential given the subject but the author has made this into her own little story about herself.  Bettina wrote the book as if she was talking - not as an author.  The writing is simplistic as best and is very poorly done.  She feels she is the first and only one to determine that there were Jewish camps in Italy during WWII - and she even met a couple of older survivors (gosh golly!).  Maybe I am jaded - but I too have been to Italy numerous times and know the cities/areas she is taking about and our neighbor lived in one of the camps.  Which is why I was excited to pick up this book and wanted so much to read what really occurred and facts.

Bettina is not an author.  She is not a historian.  She appears to be someone who thought she could write a book.  It is terrible.  What she writes is not a history of the detainees in Italy but rather her little quest to bring one or two back to her home town in southern Italy.  I am trying to decide if I throw the book into the trash or give it to charity - which seems like that would be terrible to pass this disaster onto someone else.
3901498
A heroine of a story that doesn't seem to have any redeeming qualities does not make for a very good read. This woman does not shine as a mother, wife or friend. She also easily lapsed into her drug and alcohol problems with little provocation.
1277029
Mediocre at best - the setting makes it somewhat interesting but the writing is poor - I would not recommend.
1290499
This novel is so poorly written, it appears to have been penned by a 15-year-old.  There is no transition from one thing to another.  There are far too many characters to keep track of, and even the author apparently lost interest in one of them, brother Brad, who happened to be out to sea during the climax of the story.  Perhaps it's a trademark of chick lit that attention to fashion detail is important, but I didn't find the color of the skirt and the type of top it was paired with to be particularly relevant to the story.  The kidnapping/beating/captivity segment seemed completely incongruous with the rest of the story.  I note that I am not among the first 100 to write a review, so I will not get a free copy of what I presume is the sequel, Some Other Kind of Ridiculous Situation in Paradise.  Somehow I think my life will go on.  This is definitely a case of 'you get what you pay for.'
666801
This was a good concept but not well written. I have read alot of YA and most of them, while being aimed at the teenage group, was still written at a mature enough reading level that I could enjoy it. This was not. It seemed written at a 4th-6th grade reading level. It was very simplistic writing and the story moved very slow without any new and interesting developments to move the plot along in any exciting way well into the halfway mark. The characters were very one dimensional and the only investment I had was in the little brother who was taken away in the beginning but I couldn't be bothered to follow it through to the end. When the point of view changed a few chapters in, it was terribly confusing because the voice of the character didn't seem to change in any way. It wasn't until I read most of that chapter and was confused by the facts that were being presented that it was even a different character, the alien, speaking. Also, why was he stalking her if the rest of humanity was dead? That made very little sense even in suspended reality. This was just not for me and I would guess that if anyone were to enjoy it, it would be someone very young but this is certainly not for higher reading levels as I thought.
4936686
This woman can write but the story is less than compelling. Could be a decent beach read...I thought the story itself was kind of dumb
2191680
To be honest, this book is not well written. It is so wordy and redundant. The main female character Mae is also silly.