A boring disappointment.  I was really looking forward to Amy's story but...
583410
After reading "Some Enchanted Evening", I couldn't wait to read Amy's story.  She seemed vivacious and independent.  The main character in "Some Enchanted Evening" was her older sister, Clarice.  Clarice seemed weak in comparison to Amy.  While Clarice based her life on returning to "her duty" as princess, Amy wanted more out of life.  She struck out on her own.  I was ready for an adventure when I began "Barefoot Princess."  What I read was anything but.

Amy is spending her life living with an old lady.  They sit and bead lace to earn money.  The village they live in has been neglected by it's lord, Jeremy.  The people are living poorly.  Amy decides to kidnap Lord Jeremy and ransom him.  She will take the money and move herself and the old lady to a new village.

While she has him imprisoned in their basement, Jeremy starts to have feelings for Amy.  She battles against his pompous attitude while waiting for the ransom to arrive.  However, it turns out that his uncle, who controls his estate, wants Jeremy killed.  So the ransom is never paid.  He breaks loose from his chains, but doesn't tell Amy.  He stays in the basement in hopes that she will decide to sleep with him.  She does.  He then takes her as his wife in a pagan ritual that gives her no choice in the matter.  She gives up and agrees to "be married" for a year, which is the length of the ritual.  (Is this the same Amy from the last book?  What happened to strong and independent?)  Now they must work together to expose his uncle's villainous intent.

Basically, most of the story takes place in a basement.  No adventure, no traveling, no dreams for the future.  It was a real bummer.  It took me over two weeks to read.  It is not a long book.  I just wasn't interested in picking it up.
474073
Based on the reviews I thought this was going to be a really great story. I found it rather dull and it read more like a text book or a school assignment where the author had to constantly give text book definitions of schizophrenia, drugs, etc. It really took away from the story. This was very distracting. I did not feel an emotional connection to either Raleigh or Harper. Love was not mentioned once in the story. It took about 50% of the book to actually start getting anywhere. Sorry I cannot recommend this to my friends.
982381
I look forward to reading this book b/c I love so many of her others, and was disappointed !
861521
I can't believe how disappointing this book was for me. Maybe I'd let my expectations run a little too high, but what I thought was going to be an innovative and incredible Arthurian-based story turned out to be about a "forbidden love" that made this book into a forgettable, unpleasant read. This book focuses on an instaluv romance that did nothing for me, and instead furthered my dislike of this book. I felt deceived by the time I was done, frustrated and baffled. The Forest of Adventures has the potential to be a great story had the author paid more attention to exerting the world-building she'd done beautifully, thoroughly, and the development of the characters. The Forest of Adventures is alternatively just another insufficient romance-driven novel.

I can't tell you how let down I felt by this book. In the occasional faerie books you get mentions of King Arthur, his court, and his knights, but rarely a well-done story that focuses primarily on that. So when I happened upon this book due to a friend, I was excited as hell. Then reading the book I found out I was disillusioned all along. This opening book has nothing whatsoever to do with the legend itself, apart from the related world-building and side characters, but the MC's "love" for one of the Arthurian Knights. *head-desk* I confess, I was bored out of my mind. All Mina thinks about is how beautiful and gorgeous he is and blah blah blah. Mina herself treats her so-called best friends and boyfriend like crap, utterly carelessly as soon as this Blake character waltzes into her life. I could detest her for her narration and actions.

But, really, who the heck is Mina Singer?

Even in light of the first-person POV I had absolutely no freaking clue who she is, apart from her Bella Swan Obsession with Blake. Other than her innate jerkiness, I discovered nothing about her, made no connection with her. Same goes for Blake. So he's an Arthurian Knight descended from a rather famous one, travels through the Realm, and lives with a *SORTA SPOILERY* contemporary depiction of The Lady of the Lake. But who is Blake the person? Other than Mina's constant reference to his good looks and some of his evident humor in the dialogue, Blake Beldivere is a relative stranger. So how could I have been expected to fall in love with this guy, this romance between two strangers who barely know themselves?

*HEAD-DESK*

Random and oddly placed moments in the book where some Arthurian-ish scenes take place aside, there is nothing very relevant to what's described in the summary. Then, the villain, oh the villain. Morgan le Fay has such promise. She's a dark, twisted character and could have been EPIC. But, no, alas, she's only a magically-inclined, vindictive woman hell-bent on making Blake hers. WHY? Maybe it's just me, but I've always felt that Morgan In The Legend was a Take Over the World Like Voldemort kind of person. John's depiction did little for me, and that glimmer of coolness in the character that I saw in the beginning of the book slowly fades away as it progresses, which ended in me shaking my head in distaste.

The ending may have actually been the worst part for me. I was confused and irritated. And frankly, I didn't care about the characters so why would I care how it ended?

So, plainly speaking, I really did NOT like The Forest of Adventures, as it's a flavorless Arthurian adaptation starring a flat heroine who engages in a poorly drawn out, detestable instaluv-esque romance that only serves to promote disinterest and failed to motivate me to read the rest of the series.
225579
When I read the blurb for the book, I just knew that this would be a book that I would enjoy. Instead, this book is nothing like the blurb would lead you to believe. I was incredibly disappointed.

While we're lead to believe that this is the story of Sophie's life after finding out that she was kidnapped, that's not the case. That's left for the last few pages. So, what's the majority of the book about? A whole lot of nothing actually.

The alternating stories do absolutely nothing to save this book. Sophie's parts are boring. Emmy's parts are confusing (and boring). The whole book just left something to be desired and the only reason I kept reading was in hopes that things would get better. Nope, things just end. No resolution, no confrontation, nothing.

After looking forward to reading this book while it sat on my to-read shelf for two years, You Are My Only takes home the most disappointing read of the year.
2914901
I had high hopes for this book. I thought it might have been as good as Bossypants. Unfortunately it wasnt. Amy repeatedly states in the book how hard it was to write, finish it etc and perhaps she shouldn't have started with it. There are pages upon pages of filler, other people writing the book for her, large print introductions to each chapter taking up more space than necessary. It was painfully obvious that she didn't have that much to say or share. It was funny in some places but overall disappointing. I kept reading hoping it would get better but didn't. Give it a miss.
55695
I read the first book with Rafe/Poppy and was anxiously awaiting this book. What a disappointment. This book was BORING. I knew this was not an easy story to write as their was going to be limited actions{no up against the wall sex) so the exchanges between the H and h had to be good. The H was the typical playboy,billionaire,arrogant,sexy,use to getting whatever he desires and the only difference is that he is in a wheel chair due to an accident. The heroine had a whole bag of issues and in my opinion she needed, a therapist She  was just not the right fit for this book .She should have been more sassy ,in your face and the dialogue between them should have been more humorous. Instead we got a h who was a physiotherapist who was afraid to touch the H due to previous sex issues. As I said.... boring.......The whole point of reading these books is to escape into another world free of everyday problems such as Rape ,physical abuse hunger,poor and ugly If we want to read about these topic we just have to pick up the daily paper or visit the Internet.
Back to the book,,,,,,,SPOLER ALERT,,,,,,'What!' the book ended with him still in the wheelchair YOU JUST GOT TO BE KIDDING ME Do not get me wrong i have nothing against
people who are wheelchair bound but definitely not my Harlequin Presents Heroes no, absolutely not!!
I hope when I check out Remy story next month he is back on his feet
2183893
i was really looking forward to reading about her life and how things happened for her instead i got a book of assorted scenes from the show.  i really liked her as a actor and always looked forward to seeing her on tv, so when i had a chance to read a book about her i was excited to get it.  when all i read were scenes from little house i was so disappointed i stopped reading half way through.  what a waste of money.
4611477
I was really looking forward for this new Kendall's book, cause I really enjoyed the previous two about Olivia&Zach and Rebecca&Scott.
Also I'm always looking for plot with groveling heroes for past huge mistakes (especially for abandoning her during pregnancy) - so, I had really HUGE expectation for "TRAPPED".
Unfortunately, I think Kendall made a bad execution of a great idea: this romance is so boring is almost unreal.
Nothing really happens: Paige takes back Mitch almost immediately - he didn't have any good excuse for his past behaviour and didn't have to work at all to have mum and baby back...

SPOILER

I found totally unecessary the final surprise about Diane and Mitch real relationship (which to me acually was clear from the beginning hoping it was not going to happen); I think Kendall wanted to do something to give a kind of plot to a flat book - unfortunately this "twist" is so awful it makes many characters look like sociopaths, without giving any new meanings to the romance: it doesn't explain Mitch behavior which was what I was hoping for...
4512543
I really looked forward to reading this book because I've enjoyed this author's other works.  However, I was very disappointed with this book.  It seemed to start out interestingly enough, but as the story went on I really lost interest.  By the time everything was resolved, I didn't really care much about what happened.  And that's a good thing because not much did.  The plot and characters just weren't that interesting to me. Sorry I can't write a better review because I really love The Horse Whisperer and Evan's other books.  Let's hope the next one will be better.
1349785
Unfortunately boring despite the great story idea, and when it's not boring, it's just disappointing. I LOVED everything else from Diana Peterfreund but this is going to be the exception.
2786328
This book disappointed me very much I am sorry to say.
The author did a good job in writing it, but the plot in itself I found boring.
3340488
A huge disappointment.
I enjoyed the first in the series, "Parasitology", due to the interesting premise and the flow of the novel.
However, this one was a "blahfest". It moved so slow, I would fall asleep while reading, even in the middle of the day.
Sad to see this series turn out to be such a let down, because Mira Grant's "Newsflesh" trilogy was an excellent read.
I will pass on finishing this trilogy.
4969636
I wanted to like it- I really did, I just couldn't get close to finishing it. Boring, slow, no connection to the characters- a big disappointment.
490022
I was expecting better writings. Especially, after Elizabeth Gilbert saying how an interesting story can be told in a boring way and a not so exciting story can be told magically. I really had to agree with her so I was looking forward to this collection. But it was a disappointment. Literature is so subjective. It might bring more joy to others but it is not a book I would recommend.
4661338
Before reading this book, I had read several of Eva Ibbotson's books for younger audiences and really enjoyed them.  I greatly enjoy Ibbotson's writing style and her understated sense of humor.  However, I was very disappointed with this book. It did not draw me in in the same way her other books did, and by the middle of the book I found it tedious to continue. I was not as connected to very many of the main characters as I had been in her other books. SPOILER ALERTS BEYOND THIS POINT. Although I appreciated Marek's determination and bravery in rescuing others from Nazi persecution, I did not find him likable overall.  His affair with diva Seefeld seemed very shallow, yet he returned to her even after being enchanted with Ellen.  His determination to seek revenge for the fire which destroyed his home, along with his abandonment of Ellen because of that desire for revenge, continued my disappointment in his character.  How can a love story be rewarding when one of the protagonists has such an unsatisfactory character?  If the character's flaws are presented early in the story yet he learns and grows beyond them during the course of the book, that would contribute to a satisfying story.  However, such was not the case with Marek.

In addition to issues which made Marek's character unlikable to me, Ibbotson also made Kendrick's character incredibly pathetic after his marriage to Ellen in a way that did not really ring true. I also do not tend to enjoy stories in which the protagonists who are obviously intended to end up together keep missing each other by misunderstandings and plot twists which seem forced or unrealistic, and then a quick resolution brings them together in just the last few minutes/pages of a movie/book, and that is what happens in Ibbotson's A Song for Summer.

All in all, this book was a dissatisfying read for me.
311175
This book has more about Hugette's father than it does her....I kept waiting for it to focus on her.....a real disappointment!