How is that I never read Laura Trentham before?
593064
This was my first book by Laura Trentham. How did I miss her before? It says this is the fourth book in the Cottonbloom series, so I've got to go back and catch up. I really liked her writing style, the plot and the characters. Not only were the main character, Sutton and Wyatt likable, but the secondary characters were also fun to get to know. Wyatt brother's had the "not always so harmonious" thing going on, just like any family. They really gave Wyatt a hard time, but for the most part had his back as well. Sutton's parents were very supportive of her in a way that even surprised me. Her best friend definitely broke the best friend code, but even she was redeeming herself by the end of the book.
Wyatt was just a sweetheart (as well as super sexy) from the very beginning of the book. He takes a moment that could have been the complete demolition of Sutton's dignity and really tried to help her through it. He stepped up to the plate immediately and I loved him for that! Their love/hate relationship from their childhood added another layer to the plot. It was kind of amusing that Sutton had never figured out that all the "evil things" that young Wyatt had done to her were stemming from his puppy love for her.
All in all, a great small town romance with great characters, steamy sex and the heart and romance to send me back for more!
1277908
i really don't even recall the characters names. i think its a regency. probably. and thats about it. i read a lot of romances and i rarely if ever have that issue. so i think that kinda speaks for its self.
4145367
I don't know.  It'ts a struggle for her to come up with the next line.  Doesn't feel especially creative, inspired, or notably intelligent.  I read other disappointed reviews people had written about this book, & bought it anyway.  I tend to have avant-garde sensibilities, so I thought I'd enjoy it for its avant-garde qualities.  I really tried to appreiate the experimentality of it, but I couldn't, because I realised I was readin it more for the sake of reading, & because I enjoy reading,than because this book is any good.  I know a lot of unskilled teenagers who write dada-influenced poetry that's much more interesting than this uninspired book; I don't see what makes Anne Carson so special.  1 star because it's not a good book. 1 more star, bringing the total to 2, because I feel bad just giving it 1 star.  At least she wrote something...
2848621
I was really confused about this book. There were some things that I absolutely loved about it and some things I didn't. Let's start with the plot shall we?

Meridian Sozu, a 16 year old teenager, has never fit in. She has always felt different and weird. Death has been her companion right since her birth. She finds dead animals and insects wherever she goes, it's as if the dead are calling out to her, or worse still, they are dying because of her. As Meridian cannot make sense of this, she finds herself as a recluse at 16.

One day, as she barely misses being involved in a terrible accident, she witnesses it nonetheless, and finds herself being moved from her house and her family to her great aunt with the same name Meridian-Merry. She has never met her or even heard from her except for the quilts she gets as birthday presents every year.

When she reaches her great aunt Merry's place, a huge castle like home, she finds Merry very frail and tired. A guy called Tens is taking care of her. What Meridian learns about Merry and herself is shocking and unbelievable to her.

Meridian Sozu is half human, half angel. She is the medium of the dead to heaven. Unique isn't it? As Meridian learns how to be the medium and learns more about Fenestra's and the threat that she is under, she has to be strong and find a way to defeat an enemy who's strength is way beyond her imagination.

I loved the plot and loved the whole concept of Fenestra's. The first half was a little slow for me but it really picked up after a 100 pages. I felt no real attachment to Meridian or even Tens for that matter. I would have liked a little more background on Tens instead of a sketch. But I loved the great aunt Merry. I felt her fear, her frustration and her desperate need to teach Meridian everything she could while there was still time. That shows that the author Amber Kizer is more than capable of great characterization.

I also loved the whole Church thing and the villain, Pastor Perimo. Without giving spoilers, I loved what he did to the town. Again, I would have loved if his character was more fleshed out. There was very little Chemistry between Tens and Meridian except at the end. The writing was normal in parts and brilliant in others. I feel the author has a lot more potential than we get to see in Meridian. The book was a quick read and I couldn't put it down for most of the part.

Having said all this and having written and thought about all the positives and negatives, I have to tell you one thing. After finishing the book, if I have to tell you about the book in the first 10 seconds, all I can think about are the positives. There are scenes and moments from the book that have stayed with me long after finishing it. Meridian definitely has an edge over so many other YA fantasy novels released recently and I will definitely recommend you to read it.
3216797
Wow. I first read these books some time ago. I searched out the short stories and read them. I found "The Casebook of Simon Feximal". I re-read them, all of them, several times. Then I moved on. Now I go back to re-read them again and I find myself in a brain-bend. I would have SWORN, I would have bet the rent money that I had these and "Think of England" as Audiobooks. I would have laid down the cash with a smug smirk and not have felt a quiver of misapprehension. Boy, would I be homeless now. Ms. Charles' writing is that good. I heard her characters' voices so clearly through her writing that I really thought that I had physically heard them.

Why are these not in audio? Please? Pretty please? And can we convince Philip Battley to read them?
417089
**Spoilers**

Wait.. What?!!? I had just fallen in love with Trent and then I read this and I hate his face! And what happened to her and their baby between this and the hollows series?! I feel even more lost now, but it was cool seeing what had happened to Quen and perhaps the hint of why Trent hates pixies.
195826
While the story idea itself may be of interest, I never made it past the first chapter.  In chapter 1, there is one named character - Alexandria (she's the only female character).  There are a couple of unnamed extras (toothless man, a dog, etc). The chapter is about the female character.  I was totally distracted from the story by the fact that she was identified by name at least 75 times!!  I'm not kidding.  I had to go back and count how many times the name Alexandria appeared in the chapter and then delete it from my device.
4890039
I start and restart her books,  Too slow, I finally skip the first two chapters and find out what is going on then go back and read the first two, makes more sense to me.  I have read four of her books and they all start out about the same.  First two charterers is a bunch of jumble mess.  Takes three chapters to develop the characters.  Sometimes I just forget about trying to read her books, when I get bored enough I skip over and start reading.
2654566
If you have never read any Jane/Seth books, whoo boy, are you in for a treat!!  Read them the way that they were written, in that order. There is a reason for it.  If you have already read everything, start over!!  WHAT!!  You think you have remembered it all, already!!  It is fresh every single time I read, and I am in a good different new place when I finish.  Cheers!!
196003
When I started reading her books, they were almost epic novels.  I don't know if she is required per her contract to churn out so many books a year or what or no longer feels it necessary to actually write something original but holy cow!  It seems like the last 10 books have had the exact same female lead character with exactly the same issues in slightly different locations.  If I wanted to read Harliquin Romance novels, I would.
2882820
I've read other Nancy Butler books but in this one she is so sloppy on her timeline that the book doesn't make alot of sense.  Why would Guy listen to Ned Machem's denigrations of Gulliver for TWO YEARS?  Is Og really matchmaking, or really evil, or just plain stupid? And if he is planting ideas with Guy, how long has he been doing that? If Dorcas loved Guy since she was 15, why didn't THEY get married?  And how could things go so badly for so long on the island with Guy knowing nothing?  Sorry, I just couldn't suspend my disbelief that all this was happening, and had been happening for so long.  It just didn't make sense to me.

(p.s.  If Gulliver is the son the previous laird of the island, he IS the laird, whether he has so declared himself or not.  That's the nature of primogeniture, where birth determines titles.)

I'd agree with other reviewers that the kidnap victim falling in love with her captor story line is not only hackneyed, but not very well-done here.  Maggie mouths off, but that is not the same as character development.  And Gulliver seems to have no character but swagger. So what exactly is it that each loves?

Please pay more attention next time, Ms. Butler.
106879
I really like this author and have thoroughly enjoyed her other novels. This one I didn't and was very surprised and disappointed that Jesus was not ever mentioned in this book. She talked about heaven, talked about angels and it talked about demons but never once did she talk about Jesus. She talked about the Holy Spirit and she talked about God that she never once mentioned how to have a relationship with him.  There are many opportunities for this author share with the reader how to become part of the Oneness through salvation in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but never once did she mention it. What she did say was that it was difficult and obscure to find your way to Oneness with the Spirit of God. She could have kept the story exactly as it was and mentioned Jesus just  one time and it would have been a good book. I was extremely disappointed and will not be reading the rest of the series.
2998057
My first exposure to this talented author was "Elsewhere", which I highly recommend. Because I loved her writing style, I decided to pick up her first book. It was completely different and not necessarily in a good way.

It was so odd that I'm not sure I even know how to describe it. Margarettown is a physical place, yet somehow a symbolic representation of the many facets of a woman's personality. Sounds a bit strange, right? It is. Parts of it work well....and other parts were confusing and seemed disjointed. I'd love an author explanation of what she meant!

I'd read "Elsewhere" again, but this book - no. Skip it or, if you must, read a library copy. She *is* a talented author so I'll be looking for her next release, coming soon!
4295756
I haven't read it yet so I cant answer those questions. I have read her other books and she is one of my favorite authors.
4920821
I'm going to have to be really honest here: I haven't read the book properly.  Amazon offered it, and the previous books all had good reviews, so I took them up on the offer.  I immediately used prime to order the first books on the series, as well as the side books that the author has written in this world.  I thought I'd have time to read them all before this review came due.  I  was wrong, and now I'm late and I really don't want to read this book since I've invested so much time into reading the series correctly (in order).  I just need to read more, and read faster.

But I need to review this book, because, as I said, I'm late.  To do that,  I simply dedicated a morning spent carefully reading two or three page excerpts at random.  It hasn't ruined anything for me, that I know of (yet), and I've randomly read a lot of pages throughout the book.  Quite a few things were a little tantalizing to read.  I'm sure when finally get to it in order that I'll probably have a little foreknowledge of what's coming, but oh well, I know it's going to be good!

My first thought is that is more of the same that I already knew (assuming this isn't your first book of the series): he's a good writer.  Especially when I'm just jumping around randomly.  But the exposition is notably good.  Good enough that I never really feel lost in it.  Just enough is said to either remind me about what's going on (if I already knew) or give me a heads up if I didn't recognize anything.  So, if you're just completely crazy and want to read this book first, it probably wouldn't go poorly for you.

My second thought is "why oh why did I invest in a novel series that wasn't done yet?"  I'd thought I'd have learned my lesson by now.  I should only read novel series which are finished!  I'm going to really regret reaching the end of this book because then I have to wait.

Overall, I'm quite happy that I was introduced to this entire series.  This one included.

As for the plot, I almost never go into that in reviews.  Go to google if you want to read about the plot, lots of people have surely lain it out by now.  There's probably a wikipedia page on it already.  I, instead, talk about my likes and dislikes.  And, for what little exposure I've had to this novel, I like it!  Mostly because he's a good writer, and those are hard to find these days.  I also like it because (the entire series) has an interesting and somewhat novel world that it takes place in.
4033278
I don't know how to rate a book I never bought. Although, I never have read books by this author.
4784870
My 3 rating represents the fact that I could have not read this story and been okay with not knowing about her college life. It was written to my satisfaction as a reader? Absolutely, but I closed the book and wondered, what did I really learn about Nia? Nothing really that I didn't already know in Pleasure and nothing that peaked my interest or that I had to know. Why did Eric write this story? Perhaps we need the background for Decadence which I have already preordered. As an aside, I LOVED Pleasure (read it if you have not already done so) and enjoy EJD as a writer overall. (cough cough Gideon cough)