a little diappointing
582018
Looks nice but not big enough. Needed wider seating cover and taller backing
2576403
I was disappointed by this novel. I had such high hopes after all the other books were so good. This one was a huge disappointment. Most of the interaction that we have seen between Dani and Ryodan was when she was younger. I was hoping that this book would show more interaction between the two other than what it did.

However, I loved the new spin using the old God's. It had me looking up information about Balor because it intrigued me so much. I didn't like that the battle with Balor didn't last longer, but that's okay because this book did open things up for future books. I really hope they are more like what we are used to. I wouldn't mind either if we got to see some of the other men find someone like Kasteo or Lor or Fade.

I also liked that you got a small glimpse at what Mac and Barrons are up to now and how things are still different in Dublin. I just hope the next book is a bit more like the others in the series.
2300024
A little disappointing, but there were some parts that were good.
3848265
It was nice seeing the couples again. There was a great deal of sickeningly sweet exchanges between them, though. Too much was packed into too short of a story. Mac and Connor would have been better in a novel. Some of it seemed rather pointless. There was too much detail taking up space that could have been used to offer more of a plot. I didn't get the point of Anthony getting ill. Why not have more interaction with Dean? Could have been better without the sex scenes, that were bland and uninteresting. Also too choppy, with scenes switching between couples and events. I didn't totally dislike it, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped.
1108215
This does not seem to have the usual wit and charm that I have come to expect out of this series.
4872136
I liked the first two Mither Mages books.  They were fascinating and interesting.  Danny North was a teenager: impulsive, ignorant, fallible, but basically a good guy.  But in Gatefather, Danny transforms into a wise sage who, at least figuratively, is the savior of all.

I guess I should add, it wasn't all bad, and not all good.  In GateThere are twists and turns that I didn't see.  But you have to wade through a fair bit of explanation bordering on theology to find those parts.  Sadly, there is more theology and "perfect Danny" than there is interesting story.

Spoiler alert: Here are some topics I thought would be covered in this book but weren't.  After book 2 we know that Danny (the greatest gate mage ever) is going to have a baby and I'm wondering what type of mage it will be.  Who knows?  The boy was finally mentioned in the last pages of the book.  Danny is a gatemage - by definition a prankster and there is supposedly nothing he can do about it.  Well, no longer: Danny apparently can control himself to levels that approach perfection.  Loki: he is a prankster, has all the gates and simply sits on them, mostly.  Well, ok, this is what he did for 1500 years, but still was disappointed.  I don't know, it seems like a majority of the characters went mostly, an inexplicably, good.  There was a lot of good setup, and then it fizzled.

In the end, I can't say I disliked it because there were some things that were interesting.  But it was just ok.  3 stars.
1610096
NEW BEGINNINGS, the second book in the Secrets of Clayton County trilogy, fell short of my expectations after having read the first book. The story remained easy to follow, but some of the characters became less believable. Sarah's old boyfriend travels four and a half hours from Chicago, only to find her marrying Kent. What does he do? Essentially scowls and goes back to Chicago. Given how he was presented in the first novel, that just didn't ring true to the character.

Sarah gets arrested by the FBI because the IRS claims malfeasance, and they do this on very flimsy premise. Yes, she is exonerated, but I was left scratching my head about the entire episode.

Kent Crodin's veterinary clinic is destroyed by a fire. Predictably, the town pulls together and many donate and the clinic is rebuilt. This is totally believable for a small town, makes sense. What I found disconcerting was that the back cover blurb mentioned a possibility of Kent getting hassled by the IRS for this and there is not even a mention of this in the story.

The abrupt transformation of their daughter Wendy Jo from a headstrong tomboy into a girly girl really struck me as odd. She basically changes overnight while her parents are on a romantic trip to the Bahamas. Perhaps I missed something...

To me the most serious flaw was in presentation. The first novel was published in a large, easy to read font. The font in this novel was much more compressed. Also, some words were underlined, which I found distracting.

Overall I did like the story. I hope the third novel provides a fitting conclusion.
2762853
This is the second book in what is supposed to be a 3 book arc. And it suffers somewhat from that. I really enjoyed the first book where the protagonist fights through her personal demons after suffering unjustly by her own military (actually a dishonest part of it.)
In the second volume she enters the greater struggle as her nation is drawn into a real fight with an enemy, that probably has help from some faction on the home planet. The battle scenes are not as detailed as I remember from the first book, and while the ability to be a Devil Dog is gender insensitive, some of the gender assignments seemed more forced this time. (I don't think it is my male cis-normal bias getting in the way.)
And while it is obvious that there is a fifth column back home that was the proximate cause for her unjust imprisonment at the start of the story arc, and is working against the government and the loyal marines in the second book, we have to wait for the next story to get more of a picture of who and why they are doing their nasty.
1038494
I expected a story type book. A little disappointed.
4760681
There's a new curate, a woman, come to help Father Max, and she overhears a conversation about murder while in a sauna.  Yummy start.  But then it just all went sideways.  Instead of a cozy, nosy village we only get to meet one of the least likable women in the parish who seems to have a very unhealthy affection for Max.  And there's a rumor of an estranged son... But nothing comes of either of these interesting bits.  That the new curate is a recovering alcoholic is just dropped into the narrative and again, nothing is done with this in the plot or character.  Then there's the murder involving the new wife of the old lord, a weird heir, and a piggish daughter.  Unpleasant and well written to be unpleasant.  But the action is up on the grounds of the lord's mansion, so the village gossips don't have much to do.  The bishop still seems to be ignorant of Awena's spiritual beliefs, but he voices something about Max needing to be transferred.  What? We get this, then nothing more.  Detective Cotton once again sits around and waits for Max to solve the case.  I hope he's a bit more vital on other cases, because he seems to care more for his suits than for thinking about crime. The sunglasses-wearing terrorist also show up and the last couple of chapters are like an entirely different book.  I don't know what to make of what is happening.  I am sort of interested in finding out why Max is getting back in touch with MI6, but this big shift should have been better handled.  Many of us have become invested in the odd little vicarage and its inhabitants.
4785598
Little disappointed with Danielle Steele this time...I knew where it was going before it finally unwound.  A nice piece of 'brain candy'---too many of these will cause rot.  Sorry for the negativity, but it didn't hold my interest as well as she has in the past.
4454389
I'm an Erykah Badu fan, but this latest effort is somewhat disappointing. I wish that she would get off of this annoying "techno-digital" obsession and just produce some good music like she did on her previous albums. There are a few nice songs here, but it's hard get into this album when every few minutes the groove is interrupted with some unnecessary sound effects (flying saucers, robots, an analog record abruptly coming to a halt, etc.) or studio outtakes of Erykah playing around with her band between recording sessions. This comprises approx 30% of the whole album. Another flaw is that Erykah tends to be too repetitious on some of these songs. Give us some good lyrics and stop saying the same thing over and over ad nauseam (e.g. "Love" and "Out My Mind", which is 10 minutes of nothingness).

Anyway, like I stated, there are some good songs here that are at least worthy of downloading if you don't want to spend money on the whole CD:

"Window Seat" - Classic Erykah Badu sound. Everyone likes this one.
"Gone Baby, Don't Be Long" - A good song with a nice mellow groove.
"Umm Hmm" - Has an old skool vibe to it. Very nice. My personal favorite on the CD.
"Fall In Love" - A groove sampled from Eddie Kendricks' "Intimate Friends". Not bad!
"Incense" - This is more like an interlude, with a very ethereal sound.

Lastly, I'll give 5 stars for the CD cover, which was obviously inspired by Funkadelic's 1973 "Cosmic Slop" album cover. The biggest problem with today's artists is that they lack originality & creativity, but I digress. I look forward to Ms. Badu's next album, which hopefully will bring back the pure soul like on her earlier works.
3959992
don't get me wrong... i loved imadoki! it was such a cute series and this author rocks (ive read some ceres and all 17 (since the 18th isn't out) of fushigi yugi)...

but this last one was a little disappointment i was expecting as much excitment as the rest.  Even though it did tie up some loose-ends to the story it was short like half if not even of the book. the other 1/3 was a little pre-quel. then something off the subject/series write in. didn't seem i got my money worth for it being the  CONCLUSION. ya know
2548789
I really wanted to like this book (and the series), but the heavy-handed, over-the-top action has gotten a little tiresome.  The character development seems a little forced and soap opera-ish at times.  I am still interested in the the world of Jack Sigler, and there are many good things in these books, but I feel like I need to take a break and maybe watch some cute puppy and kitten videos before I wade into the next chapter.
The character twist at the beginning of the book did not surprise me.
The character twist at the end did surprise me a bit.
4932046
I really wanted to love this book, but I didn't. Altogether it's a fun read and good premise but it fell short in a few places.

This book starts off strong and promising but the main character, throughout the book, seems inconsistent to me. One moment she is riveted in place, the next she is forceful with her words. She wasn't the super strong heroine that I like to see, but sometimes she stood up for herself. She was smart and passed her test with "flying colors" but then it takes her a LONG TIME to connect some of the dots that are askew in her life. If you are truly that smart then it shouldn't take so long, be so hard, or drawn out. So, like I said, inconsistent.

I also thought that the book grew very long in a few places and there were several missed opportunities to show additional conflict inside and outside of prison and how horrible prison life really was for her. It touched on it, but I thought it could have been grittier. It definitely needed more conflict! And the main bad guy shows up sporadically. I think he could have caused a lot more drama and I kept waiting for it to happen, but it wasn't at the level I was hoping and expecting. I will say that the dude did give me the creeps though, so at least he was well written.

The ending I was not thrilled about. I was expecting a twist or something that makes me go "AHHH!" but it never happened. I hear there is a sequel to hopefully be out in June of 2014, not sure if I will buy it or not at this point. I don't feel like I 'have' to read it after finishing this one.
4847625
I've been anxiously awaiting this latest book in the SCU series but I must admit to being a little disappointed.  I love the psychic element of these books and could even deal with the ghosts wandering around (the surprise about the little girl and her dog was quite good), but when the murderer turns out to be someone who has been dead for a hundred years, that was too much for me.  Please keep writing these SCU books, but I'd prefer them to be a bit more believable. And I'd love to see some of the characters we've already gotten to know....like some more cases solved by Bishop, Miranda or Galen.  It appears once you're married off in this series, you can't play an active role anymore.

I really do love Kay Hooper's books, love her characters and love the concept, and I did enjoy this book which is why I gave it three stars, but it wasn't my favorite.
2709698
I still  really like the concept of this series; it's a compelling premise. But the execution leaves something to be desired.  I figured out jack's secret love for Caleo early on in the first book of the series. In fact I really liked Jack in the first book. However, this book, as another reviewer stated, makes him whinier, needier, and more annoying than Bella Swan from the damn twilight books. I don't know if I'd go that far (I really dislike Bella Swan) but it was a little off putting. Also I want more character development, I want more background on the leeches and the civil war, I want a stinger context to make me care about these struggles. And I want the editor to fix all the typos that are super distracting.