DNF at 30%, audiobook

Good premise. Interesting set-up of the murder. Then, the story takes an abrupt plunge into soft core porn and psychic stalking.

The two mains have a psychic bond as a result of scientific experimentation. He’s a volunteer/prisoner from the military. She’s the daughter of the lead scientist and murderee.

Unfortunately, the interesting parts of the story are merely sprinkled in amongst the psycho-sexual encounters. Those seem to pop up every few minutes in the audio and drag on for nearly an entire chapter.

As science fiction: After the intro of the premise, epic fail
As romance: He’s a stalker
As porn: No idea because I have no interest in it

I tried this audiobook twice. Neither time stuck.

I couldn’t get past the MC being a child-prodigy Mary Sue (attending Princeton at 14, FBI waives age requirement, three advanced degrees by 25 … ugh).

The narrator’s voice didn’t help. The male voice characterizations really grated.

Not sure about this one.

Not serious literature, but that isn’t what I’m after in this story. My biggest pet peeve is the narrator’s dropping “t” in so many words: buh-uned (buttoned), tigh-uned (tightened), etc. I know the pronunciation is possible because she hit all the consonants in “important.” It’s either lazy or an attempt at sounding chic. Regardless, it leaves me irritated with the story, which is no fault of the author. Other than her poor choice of narrator.

As for the story, there is a distinct focus on sexual preferences and physical feelings related to sex. None of which really adds to the story. Sad, because the overall plot could really have been more interesting than it is, without all the distraction of attempting to be a romance while coming off more like soft-core porn.

Struggling with this one as I seek a new series. Requires a LOT of suspension of disbelief.

1) The book is set in 12th century England;
2) A female, not even of noble birth, is rude to the king in a roomful of courtiers and he lets it slide;
3) She’s a single mother with an illegitimate child by a now high-ranking bishop, running around the country with a Saracen and no male family member as escort;
4) She complains about needing “cash” because a warrant from the king wasn’t sufficient (“cash” as a term for money didn’t come into use until the mid-16th century; and
5) She mentions dissecting bodies - something not allowed in England until Henry VIII permitted it in the early 1500s. In Italy (where she was educated), it wasn’t allowed until the 13th century.

All of this in the first third of the book. These kinds of discrepancies jar me completely out of the story and make it hard to stick around. I’ll try a little longer because it’s the first in this series that I’ve read, but it’s getting dicey.

I stopped at 20%.

RW Green showed promise with the first Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth stories that he did without MC Beaton. That’s why I stuck with the series. But it’s all gone off.

Agatha’s bearlike eyes and glossy brown hair were not mentioned. Simon no longer has a jester’s face. Wilkes is tall and skinny. After her objection was explained, Agatha asked Charles to stop calling her Aggie instead of snapping at him. Even Charles is different in some subtle and unsettling way.

I am disappointed because I really wanted to see Agatha’s new romance bloom and, maybe, even grow. But this is not the Agatha Raisin I followed around for 30+ adventures. I wish her well, but must now say good-bye.

Two stars, out of respect for Ms Beaton and her creation. Mr Green, for trying, thank you.

As a fan of cozy mysteries, I was surprised at what a slog it was to finish this book. I simply couldn’t connect with the MC.

On the other hand, the business partner (Tarot card reader and perpetual optimist) and her grandfather were easy to like. Unfortunately, my enjoyment of them will not be enough to get me further in the series.

Audiobook

15% and struggling. A single mother, divorced from an abusive spouse, raising a son. So much unrealistic stuff going on that I struggle with suspension of disbelief. Starting with her ex is a doctor and he doesn’t pay child support. She apparently hasn’t heard that family court frowns on wealthy parents who don’t support their children after being told to. She has unresolved relationship issues as illustrated in her hyper-awareness of him and veiled jealousy of the current girlfriend. There’s a lot of anti-male sentiment and a few faint hints at the author’s political opinions. These are usually deal-breakers for me.

As a cozy mystery, it lacks the light humor I expect, having an overall heavy and gloomy feel. I will continue for the time being, hoping things will improve.
—-
Things did not improve.

I stopped at 18% when our “heroine” took a phone call from her ex. She asked about his father (poison vic at her shindig); he refused to tell her and began to scream at her over the phone. So, she hung up on him, right?

Well, no, she didn’t. She merely held the phone away from her ear and fretted over how to pass the time during his rant. At that point, I found her ex a more likable character than she. At least I understand him.

As another reviewer has pointed out: this woman’s best role is as a doormat. I’m done with her.

DNF early in the book. This is mostly because the narrator gave the heroine such a heavy accent (a French refugee) that the dialogue was hard to uderstand.

Past performance by Chesney in the earlier merits the two stars I gave.

The book was less about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake than it was about plate tectonics of the northern hemisphere and geology of western North America. Good information. A bit dry, but easy to follow and understand.

I was disappointed not to get more human interest stories about the earthquake, which would cause me to give the book only one or two stars.

The information I did get instead would be worthy of three or three and a half.

Second book I’ve (almost) read by this author. I DNF’d at 65%.

The sleuth is such a Mary Sue, it made my teeth ache. She’s an aging Mary Sue, on top of that. In spite of her patina of Southern gentility, she’s snarky and critical of younger women, who are unfortunately written as stereotypically bad as the sleuth is “good.”

Minor details popped out that annoyed me. In the other book I read, Meg (the MC) is 5’10”. In this one, she’s 5’9”. Her 4 y/o twins have not improved their language skills since they were three. The final nail in the coffin is her apparent lack of common knowledge while her specialized knowledge exceeds the norm.

Overall, I found the character annoyingly unbelievable and the plots uninteresting. I do appreciate the author not falling into the habit of including some gimmick of a recipe or pattern in her novel. But that wasn’t enough to salvage my opinion of American cozies being too saccharine-sweet and superficial. Give me a flawed MC with relatable problems in everyday life like the grittier British cozies.

An interesting, if bizarre premise. Well written, but I much prefer Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter series. He has a quirky sense of humor there that was absent from this book.

Interesting history of London (and world) epidemics in the 1800s. From the detail, it left me with the impression this was a pivotal time in western history where science and mythology truly began to diverge, at least with respect to public health.

Then came the epilogue. The author’s pro-city/anti-rural bias exploded into full flame. I stopped listening to his silliness shortly after he suggested it would be better to cram all the humans into densely populated cities - think Mumbai, Tokyo, or Hong Kong dense. Somehow, this is supposed to save the earth from devastating (and nonexistent) global climate change.

His specific example is waste-handling systems in cities vs rural areas. Yes, rural systems serve fewer people, per capita. The one thing conveniently ignored is: When rural waste systems need repair/maintenance/replacing, the cost and timing is borne by the owner. In cities, residents are at the mercy of bureaucrats who decide when to do that work and how much to spend on it. Neither system is perfect and both require trade-offs. I prefer my freedom, so I will stay in my rural community, thank you very much.

A fitting tale to end the series - bittersweet and hopeful.

This has to be the fastest DNF I’ve ever had at 2%.

I was struggling to suspend disbelief with the idea of an ancient Roman family having a holiday to Egypt. Leaving aside the logistics and dangers of such a journey, a globe-trotting family vacation is a modern concept. But okay, I’ll play a bit longer.

The family elects to stay with an openly gay uncle and his paramour while sightseeing. Yes, Romans did have such relationships. They were even less critical about homosexuality than many other cultures. But they certainly didn’t run around openly with same sex lovers unless there was a wife at home to provide cover and maybe a kid or two. Fine, I’ll quit rolling my eyes and see if things improve.

Wait. Specific references to their home in Rome, but the narrator has a Cockney accent? Okay, that’s just someone reading the book. Keep going.

I finally had to throw in the towel when the MC makes references to his and his spouse’s extensive foreign travels and how she likes to collect information for lectures wherever they go. … Lectures? Like school lectures? Advanced education, college-type lectures? An ancient Roman matron with a “job” lecturing students. Nope. Can’t do it. That suspension bridge just went too far and collapsed on itself.

By far, my favorite book in this new favorite series. The dinner party near the midpoint was comedic gold. I haven’t laughed so much over a scene - book or movie - in ages.

Like previous novels, the various plotlines are beautifully woven together. Bujold has created characters distinctive enough to recognize with only a few words. Miles, for all his flash, comes across as full of humanity if not humility. In spite of his sometimes high-handed ways, his ingenuity and flare make him lovable.

The best part of Miles’ character is how he has grown from his first adventures as a twenty-year-old trying to find his place in the universe into a man in his prime, returning to his home world to take up his socio-political responsibilities. The adventures change a little, but still put Miles in dicey situations he must escape by using his wits.

DNF @ 20%

I’m not sure what all the fuss over this book was about.

It lacked the punchy simplicity of Orwell’s original. If the goal was to present that terrifying dystopia from a feminine perspective, it didn’t work. Rather than the bleak and terrible world Orwell showed us, this novel made it all sound like an inconvenient but generally tolerable world.

I won’t bother detailing the unbelievable characters.

Contemporary dark romance, my hind foot. This was nothing more than pornography dressed up in costume. The premise - the fairy tale bad guy gets the girl and the only reason it gets 1/2 star - was certainly intriguing. But it ends up being a bad take-off of Fifty Shades.

Even more laughable is the author’s ability to insert “cock” and “clit” casually, but couldn’t bring herself to use the word “blow-job.” Either go big or go home. It doesn’t matter to me because I stopped long before The End.

Audio book.

A decent suspense/mystery. Two huge problems (for me, at least). The serial killer’s identity is revealed three-quarters through the story. Secondly, the protagonist’s flip-flopping and agonizing over his feelings for the mentally disturbed woman who helps solve the crime.

Both problems could have been solved with a good editor and reducing the writing by about half. It drags on far too long.

Cute concept. Fun story presentation. I did find grammatical errors in the text distracting enough to pull me out of the story world. Otherwise, this would have warranted a higher rating. Perhaps the author and editor should brush up on subjective vs. objective pronouns.

An old-school western that tackles the age-old question of nature vs. nurture. It comes with a romantic twist - as you would expect with a western - and a happy ending. An easy, feel-good novel that is better if the reader keeps in mind it was written in the early 1900’s when the wild west was still considered romantic as much as rough.

DNF

I thought it was just me because this book seems to get so many rave reviews. Pacing was glacial; characters were uninteresting. The prettiest prose in the world is worthless unless there’s a compelling plot and characters to care about.

Lots of imagined drama. Not so much documented fact. I would have enjoyed it more had I been looking for light entertainment based on historical figures. What I wanted was a factual overview of the boy king and solid evidence supporting the title theory. A disappointment.

Just started and already an improvement over other authors’ works on this series. Lupica does a better job of mirroring Parker’s pithy dialogue. He does use more “blue language” than Parker did; something that is mildly distracting, but tolerable.

At this point, I’m inclined to stay with the Lupica branch of the Jesse Stone story. Time will tell as I continue the read.
——
A decent fill-in for Parker. Good enough for me to go to the next Jesse Stone book.

Labeled by my library app as: history, nonfiction, biography. I was looking forward to reading a human interest accounting of a female immigrant settling in the southwest. The first two chapters (all I could stomach) are full of rumor, local gossip, family oral history (w/ no documentation to support it), psychic impressions, and ghost stories to make the Chamber of Commerce proud. All liberally tinged with modern man-hating and condemnation of the past because values and mores were different.

That the author presents this mess as if it were gospel-truth does serious damage to her claim of being a historian and archaeologist. She should be ashamed of herself. I’m sure her ancestors would be.

Still reading - listening (audiobook), but things are not going well. Less than an hour into the story and it is so heavily laden with internal dialogue and tell-not-show that I want to pound my head against a wall. Not only does Coleman miss in his tonal consistency, I’m not even sure he is facing the target.

I will continue listening. For now. But I make no promises about finishing.

Of the authors continuing Parker’s Jesse Stone series, Coleman is (so far) my least favorite. This book, Colorblind, is my least favorite of the Coleman books.

While he plots social issues from current events, his sympathies are too obvious in this tale. He takes violent groups with leftist agendas from the news and makes them right-wing fanatics to suit his personal philosophies. The denouement inference of pedophilia for one bad guy who commits suicide a few pages later was nothing more than a gratuitous sneer. It contributes nothing to the plot, but reveals quite a bit about the author.

The storyline generally follows the same plot from an earlier work in the Stone series (home-grown militia with nasty prejudices wreaking havoc in their own backyard). I also found portrayal of an amputee soldier with PTSD as a bigot and murderer particularly offensive.

Coleman’s style misses the mark on capturing Parker’s sharp dialogue and quirky character relationships. All-in-all, I will be glad to see the end of Coleman’s continuance novels.

DNF at 20%

I am still trying to figure out how the author could take a subject as interesting as people’s lives and how they are celebrated in obituaries and turn it into something so boring.

I thought I’d found another fun cozy series to explore. It is not to be. The final scenes felt rushed. The heroine, like others I have abandoned, leaps to so many bad conclusions it’s a wonder she doesn’t wind up in jail for interfering in an investigation. She is a small business owner who closes up shop randomly, for long periods of time, and then wonders how she will manage with no money - well, for starters, keep your doors open, maybe?

But the real killer in this story is the author’s relentless dialogue written to mimic the regional dialect. At first, it was charming. Before the half way point, it had become distracting. Before the book ended, it was annoying.

Written dialect and a main character who self-inflicts most of her woes and then wallows in her difficult situations are why I won’t bother going further with this series.

DNF at 16%

There is no way I can empathize or care about the MCs. A dog owner that refuses to allow a dog to chew a bone in the house? A vet that puts a horse with a twisted bowel in a pen overnight and leaves it?

Whether made up characters or real people, they deserve neither my respect nor my attention.

I thought this would be another fun and intense supernatural detective series like some others I have enjoyed. The first book showed a lot of promise. Unfortunately, this one devolved into much darker realms. There are violent sex/rape scenes that, while maybe necessary to the storyline (a point I am not yet willing to concede), certainly did not need the graphic description to make their contribution.

A more minor criticism is the seeming unrelated storylines tagged onto one another. They are tied together near the end, but since this is a series, might have better served the story arc had they been presented as two books. Having them crammed into one makes it difficult to stay focused on the main character’s development over time.