Entwined With You by Sylvia Day

I'm a speed reader, I read books super fast. This took me for freaking EVER to finish it. It was slow, and repetitive, and boring, and did I mention slooooooow? 

When I first started I really honestly couldn't remember the last book at all, where they left off, and what was happening. I wasn't about to go buy the book again just to see, so I kept on. It took me a long time to realize what they were talking about. The author never came out and said in words, that the stepbrother was murdered. I'd forgotten. It'd been forever, sue me. 

The rest of the book was much of the same.. two effed up people constantly needing to reassure themselves that they have feelings. picking fights, make up sex, blahblah. same stuff different book.

What I miss? the notes, the witty banter between the two of them. What I got now? two desperate idiots who seem too obsessed rather than in love. Obsessed with possessing the other, rather than taking the time to have some balls. For someone who claims to want to make it on their own and be so independent, Eva sure is a slutty dependent whiney brat.  Why can't she just grow a pair, and stand up and say no, to Brett, why is he even a issue.  It was lust, not love between them, really, grow up you idiot.

And Evas father? If *MY* father found out something like that about me, I can bet you 10 million bucks that he wouldn't be satisfied with two dinners and a tearful hug, then goodbye see ya later daddy-o.

In the middle of all the boring same drama, there were characters that popped out of nowhere, that I could care less about. The guy coworker and the no carbs? who is he anyways? and the front desk receptionist whos name I just blanked on, M. and her drama with whatever her mans name was and being sick for three days? obviously shes knocked up. Betcha anything. but since when did Eva decide to care and become friends? and obviously she doesn't care that much, my friend from work misses one day and im text bombing her, and if she doesn't answer, I facebook bomb her, and if she doesn't answer that, she'll find me knocking on her door with some chicken noodle soup. I wouldn't be like oh, I'll call her, then forget about her for the next few chapters because im busy banging some guy in a construction zone.

So, yeah, that's how I feel about all that. I don't even know if I will read number four.

The more I think about the different things in the book that really had me rolling my eyes, the more im just over it. plus all the websites and stuff im seeing are talking about how this is the most brilliant TRILOGY ever.

Now, I may presumptuous in going to the dictionary, but here is what the dictionary had to say about what the definition of TRILOGY is:

tril·o·gy [tril-uh-jee] 
noun, plural tril·o·gies.
1.a series or group of three plays, novels, operas, etc., that, although individually complete, are closely related in theme, sequence, or the like.
2.(in ancient Greek drama) a series of three complete and usually related tragedies performed at the festival of Dionysus and forming a tetralogy with the satyr play.
3.a group of three related things.


I may be the only one thinking as I read the definition..but how did THREE become FIVE? and it's still being shouted all over the place about the brilliant trilogy by Sylvia Day. pshaw. okay. *roll eyes*

The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

I added this on my TBR pile after seeing tons and tons of 5 star reviews everywhere.  Finally decided to read it.  I thought the writing was beautiful, for a self published author I have definitely read worse.  I enjoyed reading it, and found that it was one of the better books I have read in a while.

What I didn't understand though, was why Nastya felt the need to 1) dress like a slut  and 2) change her name 3) decide to talk to Josh and 4) why she left Josh and break up with him.  

1) why did she feel the need to dress like a slut?  I know in the book she said if they are going to look at her, at least they will look at her ass.  okay.  but it would make so much more sense for her to dress like everyone else and fade into the background if she didn't want to be noticed.  Seems to me that her dressing like a street walker would make people look at her even more.

2) the name change just confused me, how did she get away with it?  why was everyone, including a school, perfectly okay with enabling her lack of mental facilities and PTSD about her attack, by going along with the name change?

3) it never really explained why she decided to open up to Josh.  In the book we saw a lot of reasons why she liked Drew.  how amusing he was, and how she saw right through him.  We never clearly really saw a clearcut reason why, until the end.  in the meantime I was just like..okay, other than his good looks and obvious tortured guy thing going on, I don't see it.

4) I know she was traumatized, and hated herself, and scared of love, but aside from "why is she crying!?" and "she was gone" it didn't really explain her mind frame before she started crying, and taking off.  So I was left with a big..what the heck just happened??

and finally, even though the book was about second chances.. when she meets the "whodunit" of her story, he gets excuses.  For something that vicious, and violent, and life altering, you don't get to give a person excuses, you get to sit in court every day and look him in the eye and show courage face to face.   Not a letter, in the form of, oh, he had reasons, lets give him a second chance anyways.  She didn't even get to confront him with all her inner thoughts, while he got to say his piece.  ugh.  screw that.

All that being said..  there are a lot of points I really liked.  I liked the subtle answers, the ones that we don't know we are reading until the end, when all is explained.  Her reason for choosing to hang out with Josh, the name change, the lack of speaking.  The author gave us answers in a way where it wasn't forced.  the flow of the book was beautiful.  while I disagreed with the points and things above, I can't deny that in the end I was able to look back and realize how smooth the ride to the end was.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

This book was recommended to me from someone on Goodreads.  I'd heard of it, and noticed tons of people reading it, and posting 3+ stars.  I have been in the new adult genre phase lately, and in order for me not to get worn out on it, I decided to switch it up, and read this.

This book isn't for someone who is looking to have a quick read, it's not for the person expecting to be pulled in and spend a few hours idle and without a care.  This book reads a lot like the classics in literature.  Old style big words, intelligent writer.   While I am well read, and I am a well rounded reader, I do admit that I had to stop several times to look a word up in the dictionary (how many normal average every day Janes know what a perambulator is, really now?).

The tale itself was brilliantly written to weave the reader right in, it sucks you in so deeply that you don't realize you've been reading for a while, and much like the narrator in the book, you still have no clue how it will end.  It's victorian style gothic mystery with a hint of ghost story, left me wondering what manner of craziness I was getting myself into.  The ending..man the ending.  I can't say anything, spoilers and such, but the ending.  yeah..I wasn't expecting that, but I should have been.  It's not too often that I find a book where the ending, the "a-hah!" moment wasn't revealed to me all along.

On the flipside, one thing that I didn't like about this book, is the point of view change.  There was several times in the book when the dying author was telling the tale, that slipped from "we" to "I"  which is also the point of view that the main character, the narrating biographer tells the story.  so going from the past, to the present, sometimes tripped me up and made me have to reread some of it because of confusion.


I'll end this with a quote, it explains how I feel right now, and fabulously I have taken this from the book I just reviewed.

 "Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes–characters even–caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you"

Hello!

Hey there! Welcome to my brand new blog.  I decided to make my own personal blog for anything book related, I have no idea where this will go, or what will happen, or if I will keep it up, I hope so.  I am a avid GoodReads user, and I usually post my reviews there, however, I am not thrilled with goodreads reviews anymore, I wish they wouldn't allow people to slow things up by posting pictures and gifs and all sorts of crazy things.  I just want a good old fashioned "they this book sucks because... or hey! omg! yeah, i loved this book! because..."  or something along those lines.

I just wanted to post my first post.  Currently I am reading "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield.  Once I am finished with that book, I will get on and post my first review!

Thanks for stopping by!  Come back again!