Disliked

Debt Inheritance (Indebted #1) by Pepper Winters

 in Adult / Book Reviews / Books / Older Readers by

Indebted #1, Debt Inheritance Book Cover

Summary

“”I own you. I have the piece of paper to prove it. It’s undeniable and unbreakable. You belong to me until you’ve paid off your debts.”

Nila Weaver’s family is indebted. Being the first born daughter, her life is forfeit to the first born son of the Hawks to pay for sins of ancestors past. The dark ages might have come and gone, but debts never leave. She has no choice in the matter.

She is no longer free.

Jethro Hawk receives Nila as an inheritance present on his twenty-ninth birthday. Her life is his until she’s paid off a debt that’s centuries old. He can do what he likes with her–nothing is out of bounds–she has to obey.

There are no rules. Only payments.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

This review is going to be extremely blunt and to the point and unlike any other ‘gentle’ review I’ve done before.

So that is my disclaimer.

I absolutely hated this book so much. The only reason that I actually finished reading it was because I was curious to see if it may get better due to the fact that so many people gave it a positive reviews and seemed to love it. This book falls into the dark romance genre, sub-genre is dark erotica and it completely fits into that genre, no questions asked. This book was pretty damn dark and that was one reason I hated it so much. I’ve read dark books before, more apocalyptic books, but this was dark sexually.

Technically the author is known as a BDSM writer (apparently according to research on her) and she has made the NY Times best seller list and a lot of people love her but this writing was just beyond messed up. No, there wasn’t any rape, per se, but there was a lot of coercion and sexual threats. The main characters were Nila and Jethro and I despised them both.

Jethro was cold and he was supposed to be hated, as that was his part, but he was beyond horrible. He was controlling all around, kind of like Mr. Grey from 50 Shades, although instead of readers having to infer that he was insane, it was blatantly obvious that Jethro was beyond screwed up in the head and I would define him as a psychopath. By the BDSM terms, based on the reviews I’ve read, he was considered to be a Dominant, but he was not even close to that. Jethro was a killer and more than a lot deranged in the head and I wanted to just run away from the book. But having a good and hated main character is great, so it was talent to make him hated so much, but my serious problem rested in Nila.

Nila was essentially Anastasia Steele, from 50 Shades, on steroids and a hell of a lot dumber. She knew, the moment that she met Jethro, that he was dangerous and didn’t have an option to say no to getting a drink with him, but everything after that went downhill. All of her ‘creep’ warning bells were going off and she was smart in the beginning, choosing to leave him (not a spoiler because it doesn’t affect the story), but then…THEN she decided to go back and met up with him to get revenge on a guy she didn’t even know. A little back story, she was texting a guy who had been a wrong number a long time back, and he pissed her off, a guy she didn’t even know, so she wanted ‘revenge’ or some rubbish like that.

As the story progressed, she pushed Jethro’s buttons soooooooo much. I mean, pardon my french, but she was a dumb bitch, big time. Sure, there are times you fight when you are technically being taken hostage, or kidnapped, but there are times you don’t push it. If you think your captor is going to snap and potentially kill you, you do NOT push the buttons of someone who would snap your neck in a second. Like no!

The story continued and eventually Nila was degraded to no more than a slave, due to a debt which had happened with the family hundreds of years back.

I kept thinking that maybe Nila had Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological phenomenon where you have empathy, sympathy, or feelings towards your captor,  or something, but she knew what was happening was wrong, but would continue to push Jethro. AND THEN! IT GETS BETTER! She’s technically a captive and wants to have sex with Jethro. She doesn’t care that he is cruel. She’s just a lustful young woman who has ABSOLUTELY NO SELF-PRESERVATION SKILLS!

This absolutely infuriated me. I wanted to reach into the story and beat the hell out of her and tell her to wake up and stop being so god-damned stupid.

As you can gather, I absolutely hated this story. And I would NOT recommend it at all. It gives an extremely twisted view of sex as well as BDSM since apparently this has those qualities in the writing. I didn’t see it though – all I saw was some serious messed up stuff.

Yes, it was free on iBooks so that’s the only reason I downloaded, and I am so glad it was free because I’d be annoyed if I purchased it.

Best part(?!) is it is a series and there are 6 books in this series. Will I read them? Absolutely not. I don’t want to know where this story goes now and I can make my own ending.

So please, avoid this romance book at all costs unless you’re into dark erotic romance.

Happy reading!

The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

 in Book Reviews / Books / Fantasy / Young Adult by

The Winner's Curse book cover

Summary

“They were never meant to be together. As a general’s daughter, seventeen-year-old Kestrel enjoys an extravagant and privileged life. Arin has nothing but the clothes on his back. Then Kestrel makes an impulsive decision that binds Arin to her. Though they try to fight it, they can’t help but fall in love. In order to be together, they must betray their people . . . but to be loyal to their country, they must betray each other.

Set in a new world, The Winner’s Curse is a story of rebellion, duels, ballroom dances, wicked rumors, dirty secrets, and games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.”

Review

So I’ll be blunt and to the point with this review. In all honestly I really didn’t like this book, and didn’t finish it. I got to page 230 or so out of 330+ because I decided to give it a nice go. I didn’t want to give up as sometimes they get better half way through but this book honestly didn’t in my opinion at all.

My main problem was I didn’t connect with the characters. That is a big thing for me in the story. I don’t need to relate to them but I need to connect to them. I want to be able to read the story and be able to get inside the head of the characters and feel like I am a part of the story and am able to be into the story. With this one, I honestly didn’t feel like I was able to. I never really got into the book because I just wasn’t interested in it.

The story idea was interesting, a master in love with a slave, although the slave wasn’t a slave as we know it. While they were owned, they weren’t treated as badly as slaves from real life, as long as they did what they were supposed to do and did it well. I was intrigued by the idea but honestly, once I started reading it, I really didn’t like it. It was just weird to read.

Finally, I realized that there was weird character development. It kept progressing and then just falling flat on it’s face. Maybe, since there are other books in the series, the series gets better, but I wasn’t willing to wait because if the book doesn’t catch me half way through for a single book, or after the first book in a series, I don’t have any motivation to carry on. I do hate not finishing books, but I don’t have time to waste on books that I don’t enjoy unfortunately, but I did give it a valiant try.

This book does have decent reviews though, a lot of readers giving it a 4+/5 stars so maybe it is their kind of book but it personally wasn’t mine.

Anyone agree or not agree? I’d love to hear opinions.

Otherwise, happy reading.

Lord of Rage by Jill Monroe

 in Adult / Adventure / Book Reviews / Books / Older Readers by
Book cover Lord Of Rage Jill Monroe

Lord Of Rage Jill Monroe

Lord Of Shadows Book 2

Summary

“Princess Breena had been dreaming of her warrior lover when she was ripped from her Elden castle and thrown into a strange, dangerous realm. Lost and alone, she prayed for survival and vengeance for her stolen kingdom. She found both in a woodland cottage…in a dark bear of a man.

The golden-haired beauty had eaten his food and slept in his bed when Osborn found her. Though he wanted to awaken his virgin princess to carnal pleasures, Breena wanted more—including his warrior skills. Skills the once-legendary mercenary had long buried. Now Osborn had a choice—risk his life or deny his princess her fairy-tale ending.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

Honestly, I really disliked this book and I really disliked this entire series so far. I have read book 1 and book 4 so far and only have book 3 to go but so far I really don’t like the series. The writing and the story lines are horrible. It is the traditional guy and girl and girl falls for guy and does everything for him with a little bit of action. I just hate it.

And the female gives herself up so fast and I really dislike that too. It’s just the writing is so simple and everything about it is so simple and cliché. I know that the writers of these books are well-known writers, such as Nalini Singh (who I love as you know) but these stories were written for Harlequin so they were supposed to be the traditional quick reads that everyone likes.

But I’m not everyone.

Sure, if you’re looking for a quick fix and an easy read and a traditional story line, this might be the book for you, but otherwise I really dislike them. They definitely aren’t worth buying and are a one time read in my opinion.

But, other romance lovers out there may enjoy the book. It does fit the traditional romance novel bill. But of course, once again, they are adult books with adult content.

If this is your type of book, then happy reading to you because as a classical romance story it works just fine.

But if you are looking for something with more meat to it and just more to the story/series overall, then give these ones a miss.

The Light Between Oceans (A Novel) by M.L. Stedmad

 in Book Reviews / Books / Older Readers by

Summary

“After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as a lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock. To this isolated island, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up carrying a dead man and a living baby. In. M.L. Stedman’s mesmerizing novel we, we are seduced into accommodating Isabel’s decision to keep this “gift from God,” and we are swept into their story.”

-From the back cover

Review

I shall start off by saying that this was a book I would have never read but it was the required book for my school so I didn’t really have a choice. And honestly, I really disliked this book.

It was so damn depressing and on such a sad topic.

I mean come on, you can tell in the summary that it’s going to be sad – miscarriages and a stillbirth.

My school couldn’t have chosen a happier book? -.-

Anyway. The story was pretty good but it was really convoluted. Chapters were broken up into sections and some sections would be in different people points of view and it going confusing fast as to who was speaking and when that actually happened because it would jump between times and such. That annoys me when it does that without telling you when it actually is happening clearly because then you get confused and such.

As I said the story line was quite depressing and with a child being taken from someone (can’t say what exactly as it’s in the story later on) you get extremely stressed over what is occurring and I really dislike that in books. If its sci-fi or action its fine, but not in  a book like this that is based in reality.

There really isn’t a lot to say in this book as there was no character development that I was able to see, and overall I just really didn’t like the book.

I know that many people would be interested in something like this, but personally I wouldn’t recommend it.

But if you have read it and have a different view on it, let me know what you think about it.

Until then, happy reading.

Zahra’s Paradise by Amir and Khalil

 in Book Reviews / Books by

Summary

“Set in the aftermath of Iran’s fraudulent elections of 2009, Zahra’s Paradise is the fictional story of the search for Mehdi, a young protestor who has vanished into an extrajudicial twilight zone. What’s keeping his memory from being obliterated is not the law. It is the grit and guts of his mother, who refuses to surrender her son to fate, and the tenacity of his brother, a blogger, who fuses tradition and technology to explore and explode the void in which Mehdi has vanished.
Zahra’s Paradise weaves together fiction and real people and events. As the world witnessed the aftermath of Iran’s fraudulent elections, through YouTube videos, on Twitter, and in blogs, this story came into being. The global response to this gripping tale has been passionate—an echo of the global outcry during the political upheaval of the summer of 2009.
Zahra’s Paradise is a first on the internet, a first for graphic novels, and a first in the history of political dissidence. Zahra’s Paradise is being serialized online at zahrasparadise.com.”
-Amazon.com
Review
I really disliked this book. I could not get past the first 5 pages of the book. Yes I know that I should have given the book a chance but I just couldn’t. Puppies were killed in the beginning of the book and I really did not like it and since it was a graphic novel, it was graphic.
Maybe I will pick this book up again another day but I just could not deal with these puppies being killed. I am fine with violence and people dying in books, but I just could not deal with these puppies.
I cannot say anything about this book but I just wanted to let you know what I thought about the beginning of it.
The drawings in the book though were quite good.
You may be interested but I was not. But if you do read this book, please let me know what it was like.