Palmer Addley Is Dead As This Lame Story
582042
Boredom! Boredom! Boredom! Boredom is the flavor of insanity. I have always liked the character of James Rhodes because he managed to escape the black sidekick box in a way that even The Falcon has yet to demonstrate. I bought this looking forward to what promised to be a new beginning for a character that, admittedly, has had several beginnings.  I found myself dreadfully bored two issues into this collection.

What we have here is a tale of mystery and terrorist intrigue on an international level as Rhodey is given a new set of War Machine armor by Tony Stark, and sent on a mission to investigate what appears to be some sort of terrorist cult, possibly, as acts of terrorism are carried out in the name of a military scientist or some such who committed suicide via handgun At least, thats the story the reader is told. What we get are pieces of a puzzle that never come close to connecting. We are presented with the possibility that this gifted scientist whos supposed to be dead could actually be alive, but we don't know for sure. Then to further confound the reader, the last two stories in this collection don't even deal with the title theme of the book. Instead, we get a couple crossover issues with Marvels FEAR ITSELF saga, a mega-event that was running through several of Marvels titles at the time. And even these two issues leave on an incomplete note, with the martial arts character of Iron Fist being possessed by some demonic essence.

This book is a waste of time where absolutely nothing is resolved, and very little happens. The scuffle involving Iron Fist that the reader is treated to near the end has nothing at all to do with the main storyline, and it also looks bland and uneventful, in and of itself. This book is not worth buying even if someone on Amazon is offering it for .001 cent. If there was an option on here to give this book ZERO stars, thats what I would do.  Very disappointing.
3084569
One of the most pointless stories of all time. Just an absolute waste of time and money. Do you want to read a story about superman? Or an Ungrateful author who doesn't even like superman?
1279414
Spoilers ahead.

The book is boring, too long (it should have been a short story), and the "monster" is a plant that mimics only what it has heard and, yet, it can mimic a cell phone sound in on a hilltop with no phone reception whatsoever. So you must ask yourself: where did this smart, evil plant hear a cell phone chirping BEFORE so it can mimic it now in the middle of nowhere? The characters are so stupid that they all think it's a great idea to go down a bottomless pit dangling from a hemp rope of dubious strength, in search of a mythic cell phone in a part of the map without a single cell phone tower one hundred miles around. Also, suspension of disbelief already shattered, you must stop to think: Mayans with bows and arrows? Guns in the Yucatan no problem. But bows and arrows? Seriously? This is not the Amazon basin, this is the Mexican jungle: totally different kind of natives; completely different cultures. Machetes, check. Guns, check. Arrows, nope.

I couldn't feel empathy for the poor sods who end up trapped on the hilltop. Smith's writing style is not very engaging and he weights his story down with unnecessary digressions and biographical flashbacks. I suppose the obvious purpose is to add depth to the future victims. It doesn't work. It does work as padding, though, so what should have been a novella or a decent short story ends up having 500 pages in the pb edition. 500 pages of six people tortured to death through falls, broken bones, thirst, hunger, cuts, choking, arrows, and the slowly dawning realization that there is no hope at all and that the malevolent plant will win in the end. Boring. Pointless. More than a bit sadistic, too.
467822
The short story 'Night is for Hunting' was probably the best one. 'Redemption Center' and 'Angle at My Shoulder' are related, Angel is a good follow up to the Redemption story and they all get their just rewards in Angel which seemed fitting. I guessed I was going on a solid 3 stars and maybe 4 even.
Then comes the biggie - the novella the book is named for and wow - is it really bad. Muddled, confused, meandering and ultimately on the boring side, at the end it's (with apologies to the author) is Thank God!!! its over! Not sure how I even finished this book, but some how I finally did. A solid zero star read, oh wait, I can't give 0 stars under Amazon rules.
The short stories prevented this from being a total time waster, but I really can't go much above 1.5 stars - rounded it up to 2 stars finally, but that was a hard decision for this book.
I can't understand all the great reviews though...
1879408
Lame. Lame. Lame.  This was a good concept poorly executed. The paranormal team equipment was laughable as were they. It was believable up to the seance, then jumped the shark. The journey into wraith land was pretty good until Steampunk hell. Then the whole ending was just lame. I expected a better ending for sure... not happy, but better written. I'm sorry I spent almost $10.00 on this stupid movie.
1969828
This is the last Diana Palmer book I'll buy. I really don't want gaming, religion and history rammed down my throat in a romance novel. No sexual tension and the protagonist seemed on a par with a 12 year old. I was really looking forward to Carson's story.
This book was a total flop.
891558
Okay, it's the story of a sad, lonely, overweight thirtysomething woman with an awful mother, a dead-end job, and only one friend - who happens to be 93 years old. I think this could have been a compelling and emotional story to tell. However (and unfortunately), Diana's story is told to the reader as if it were a clinical report or a case study. The language is flat and the story is colorless. There is no realistic dialogue, no subtlety of description, no engaging narrative. I felt as if the author were worried that her readers wouldn't be intelligent enough to infer things about Diana and her life. Instead of TELLING us Diana had a life-changing epiphany (in pretty much those exact words), why not use your craft as a writer to SHOW it happening, and do so over more than one or two pages? Diana's character is endearing but pretty implausible - I mean, come on, a 32-year-old woman who is shocked and confused by the creative names for shades of lipstick? ...and who prefers to go to her OB (with her mother, no less!) for a pregnancy test rather than purchase an at-home test?...even though she hasn't had sex for years? Come on! RDI has published some genuinely smart, well-crafted chick lit in the past few years, but this one has considerably LOWERED the standard. It really comes across as a rushed and half-hearted effort.
914507
I bought this video because I've always enjoyed Jennifer Garner's work.  About 5 minutes into the movie, one realizes that the jokes are running thin, and then the main character "invents" lying by telling his dying mother that there will be a wonderful place to go after she dies.  I was insulted by the overall storyline that a belief in God, and of the afterlife, was the invention of lying.  This movie is a STEAMING PILE of horse manure put out by a production company with an obvious political agenda.  (Oh, Shame on you Mrs. Garner for accepting this type of role.)  I was NOT impressed.  PS:  Amazon made me as a reviewer give a star rating.  I had to give it one star because of this, but if given a chance would have given it -2 stars.
4817675
This stand-alone novel starts with the abduction of a child in an American airport. The unlikeliness of the airport authorities insisting that a child should remain alone and unaccompanied in an airport while his guardian was checked out by security sets the tone for this wildly implausible tale.

It grieves me as a long-standing fan of McDermid to say that this book is frankly poor - the tale is obviously based on a couple of recent big celebrity news stories in Britain, the main one being the life and sad death of Big Brother star Jade Goody, and as a result is rather distasteful, as well as managing to be both dull and almost laughably silly at the same time. As just one example, the idea that three days after losing her adopted son, the heroine Stephanie should be making plans for a romantic break with her boyfriend gives some indication of the lack of any reality or convincing emotion in the book.

However, I was willing to give it three stars as a rather tedious and unconvincing read until the dnouement. Signalled well in advance, the only surprise was that the author felt she could go so over the top without the book losing any remaining credibility. For fans, this will be a huge disappointment. For newcomers to McDermid's work, please don't start with this one - there are many, many much better books in her back catalogue.
3195370
All the elements are there but for some reason the souffle didn't rise.  This book will be forgotten.  All the bling extras of Moore books - such as additional cover pages and text short stories -- go from side shows to main event, to the book's detriment, rising up like story assassins to smite this tome into a coma.  In short, it was boring.
104347
Eggers has written a book about a salesperson of IT equipment sent to Saudi Arabia.  Unfortunately, the writer obviously knows nothing about IT equipment, nothing about the life of a sales person, and not very much about Saudi Arabia, and obviously didn't bother to do anything beyond the most basic research.  Consequently, the story is flat and unrealistic, the characters one dimensional, and the plot just plain stupid.  If this had shown up on the slush pile without Eggers name on it, it wouldn't have gotten a second look before being thown away.
1693858
I just don't get the high ratings!  I understand for a short and free prequel that one should not expect much but have read more developed ones than this.  This was a waste of time and space on my Kindle.

The characters did not draw me in.  To me, they came across as rather "wooden".  I was never drawn in to the story to care enough is they ever get their HEA.

Even in Sci-Fi or PR, the author needs to help the reader suspense belief - just didn't happen in this one.

****SPOILER ALERT********
The biggest problem that I had was the way that Brandon put Arden in an "awaken sleep" so that she would respond to him and think it was a dream.  This young inexperience, implied virgin, has sex and then the next morning thinks that everything is a dream when there should have been a lot of physical evidence to counter that - which make it all seem implausible.  There is no explanation for not having any evidence of having sex the night before or why she is totally clueless.  This goes on for several nights.  It was just unbelievable even for a PR.
*End of Spoiler*

If this is a "revamp" of a previous published short story, I'm glad I didn't try and read that one.  Bottom line - it sure did not entice me to continue with the series.
4942571
This is a book stuffer book. Three "books" in one. So if you are expecting a full length book,  forget it. Better off Dead is less than a third of the advertised page length. The story is an incomplete cliffhanger. Book stuffing is against Amazon policies and more importantly, infuriates me! Quit trying to con us into buying another book. If you write a decent book, we will buy the next. But crap like this? I'm out. So about this book...I laughed like anything at the nasty little angel character, Bill. That guy was a riot. In a gross, inappropriate way. If you are not okay with masturbation jokes, you might want to pass. The biggest problem was he overshadowed every other character and I got bored when he wasn't around. I was disappointed the author did not fully explore Lily's transition to life in a completely new body. I thought the magical clone replacement was contrived and unbelievable. It makes much more sense that she be injected in a dying body and have to work around the life and people that person left behind. The continual quotes from self-help gurus got old quick, but seemed to be the only time Lily had a personality. I feel like this story had so much potential but fell flat. Lily a Medieval re-enactor, career girl, loving daughter, she could have been funny, wry, smart, bubbly, bratty, or ANYTHING, but she was nothing and I felt nothing for her. In a way, I'm grateful for the big ole cheater ending on this short story passed off as a book, because I had had my fill of Lily Blank Canvas Character anyways.
1454230
For a spin off, this is a bad one. This story should have been left alone, and the reader be allowed to imagine or develop their own character development. It doesn't say anything of how she got there or how her mind cracked at the University. It's just a strange story of her behavior in the the underthing. Try harder next time Patrick,  when you just want to make a few more dollars on a pathetic story spin off.
2124957
A ridiculous story, a total waste of time and money
2987894
'Cross Justice' is the first novel I've read by James Patterson and is likely to be my last.  Contrary to the thousands of reviews on this site I found the book to be rather dreadful.  Oh, the main story itself is not that bad.  It concerns a super FBI guy (Alex Cross) returning to his hometown to help save his nephew from being sent to prison on false charges.  Cross also goes to Florida to do some research about his presumed dead father and gets connected with the hunt for a socialite serial killer.  It's all a lightweight read.  Dialogue is fairly lame, no depth to the characterizations.  But without a doubt the worst part of this book is the screwball ending.  Among the several hundred books I've read and reviewed over the years this book's ending is perhaps the most contrived and STOOPID.

Bottom line: laughable ending destroys what is otherwise a mildly enjoyable yet forgettable read.  Not recommended.
2228299
The voice seems authentic, and that's about the only interesting aspect of the book.  His life in the limelight was brief indeed; so brief, that aside from some childhood details, the brothers' short stint as London club/gang lords in the 60's,and of course, his version of the murders and trial (with ample whinging about how all the other bottom-feeding book- writing co-criminals got the details wrong) he has to add gobs of filler.  His "story" is padded out with an entire chapter of his wife Kate's story (a chatty, self-serving "bio", written in the first person, by the woman herself), chapters about life inside and finally a long, dull chapter about the history of Broadmoor!  To get a perspective, figure it out like this:  the man was born in 1933, convicted and imprisoned in 1968.  This bio was published in 1993 (Ron Kray died 2 years later) so, aside from a few reminiscences from the glory days,  what is there really to write about?  A dull life in prison, brightened up by visits from a bubbly young wife and a little light research into the history of the institution that is his home.  You might as well feel sorry for the bloke; his "legend" is a sad and hollow one.