I never ended up receiving my early reviewer copy, so this one fell into the endless tbr pile. Finally bought it myself as an ebook, and now I'm mad I waited this long! A great novella about queer librarians in a dystopian future that throws you right into the Western tropes.

I saw another reviewer call this book disjointed, and I think that is exactly how I felt about it. I don't read tons of mystery, so maybe I am just not as familiar with the tropes and beats of the genre, but I kept feeling like I had missed something in my reading. It felt like picking up a book from the middle of a series instead of reading in order. It kept me from really connecting to the characters and I don't know that I will pick up anything more from this author.

I've started and stopped this one a few times, leaving it in my TBR pile since I did receive it through Early Reviewers. This is my last attempt, and I DNF. The writing was a bit perfunctory and I just didn't feel the horror of the terrible situation these characters are going through.

This Pakistan Pride and Prejudice is a very close adaptation of the original. I find the comforting and familiar plot points in a re-telling free my to understanding and relating to a new-to-me culture.

My main complaints were first the fairly non-stop fat shaming of sister Qitty, which felt like it was coming from the author, rather than the mean-spiritedness of the characters.

My second problem was something that seems to have also bothered another reviewer, which is that English-teacher Alys (the Elizabeth Bennet main character), who is literally teaching P & P when we meet her, never notices the similarities in her and family's story to Jane Austen's novel. To have the character be that familiar with the book and not remark upon the coincidentally similar names and situations happening within her own story definitely took me out of it.

A quick and fun enough read for Austen fans, but perhaps not self-aware enough to satisfy a true Austenite.

I'm only about half-way through this anthology, and had to put off finishing until the new year, but it has been quite good so far. As with other short fictions, some of these stories really were the germ of a great idea that needs more space to breathe. But sometimes the lack of closure, or the desire for more works in a stories favor. Through the first 8 stories, I would give most of them 3 stars, with two standout four-star stories in Seanan McGuire's "Pedestal" and Lavie Tidhar's "Heroes".

Beautiful. For hard-core Austen bibliophiles!

Super cute for hockey fans and hockey fans in the making!

Did not finish

This was a fun, funny, and quick-read romance! I had been hearing great things about this book, so was over the moon that I got this through Early Reviewers. I sped through this in 2 nights, giggling wildly to myself half the time. (The other half was fanning myself during the sexy bits!) If you love the witty banter of rom coms, this is the book for you!

I recently tried to re-read this in prep for reading the prequel and sequel. I love P&P, Austen, and Austen re-tellings, and was amused by this the first time I read it. But on re-read, I couldn't make it through the entire thing. I was trying to put my finger on what was bothering me, and another reviewer put said it better than me when they said the author was writing "against" Austen instead of "with" her. I think someone who loved P&P more could add zombies to the classic story without seeming so disdainful of it.

After starting and stopping this book multiple times, I have finally made it all the way through! While I can see how the author wants to tie together the past and present threads of his life, everything felt disjointed to me. His present day ghost hunting didn't quite mesh with and reflect his own "ghost" experience, and his friendship with Laura never really felt clear and connected to the rest of his experiences. Maybe her disconnect and mysteriousness never really allowed me to grasp her impact on the author's life. A very odd book overall.

I felt like I had missed crucial details when starting to read this book, which is possible as the book is part of a series. The beginning felt rushed and the characters felt like it was assumed I was already familiar with them. By the time I reached the first sex scene around 50 pages in, I felt like none of the relationship was earned. I guess I just like a little bit more of a slow burn. DNF.

I liked that the author gave a voice to a minor and maligned character from Pride & Prejudice. Mary always seemed liked someone to laugh at or pity, and I think that the first-person point of view really helps give the reader sympathy for Mary. She suffers from middle child syndrome, and to see her grow and mature over the course of the book is quite moving.

This was a surprisingly fun and well done mash-up! It really makes me want to buy everyone I know copies so we can stage this!

I was quite delighted to have received this book from Early Reviewers, as I read and loved Ms. Grant's other book A Lady Awakened. While I did not love A Woman Entangled quite as much, I still greatly enjoyed it! Where others may call the pacing of her books slow, I would say they are deliberate, and make the character's growing feelings seem much more real. I didn't necessarily love Kate at first, she is such a richly drawn character that I still understood her, until I was rooting for her and Nick. Celia Grant is definitely an auto buy for me now!

This was a fun, light read. The main character of Althea was delightful, the hero (Sir Tracy) provided some witty banter, and some of the side character were a hoot. I especially loved Sir Tracy's aunt, who used her age and rank to say what she wanted and ask whatever impertinent questions she wanted. Being a more traditional regency romance, there isn't any sexytimes, but the love story is sweet, if not very exciting. My main problem is that Althea is courted by a man who has already has a fiancé, finds out that he is already betrothed, befriends the put-upon fiancé, and then lets the poor girl end up with the scoundrel. It's like Althea dooms the poor girl to life of being cheated on and lied to.

I did notice a lot of the errors that other reviewers have pointed out, and I think I'm unfortunately getting used these types of errors in ebooks, because it did not bother me as much as it did others.

Did Not Finish.

I just could not get into this one. Maybe it's because unlike the Jane Austen mash-ups, I have not read the original Anna Karenina multiple times. I suppose I will attempt to get through the original Tolstoy again before I try this one again, because I really want to get to the fabulous ending everyone has been talking about here!!

This book was a fun, quick read. The authors assign grades to all sorts of animals from around the world. I was worried it would become one-note like other humor books based on a blog (I'm looking at you FU Penguin), but the tone is light enough and there are plenty of funny and surprising grades given. This book will definitely help give you fodder for your next vulture versus peacock debate, and teach you why you should not love koalas or alpacas.

I have read way too many Jane Austen spin-offs, sequels, and rip-offs than is probably good for my health. But it's books like Jane Bites Back that make it an addiction I'm in no hurry to quit!

I have not tended to like sequels or spin-offs that concern Jane Austen herself. They always seem to paint her in light that is either unbelievable for her time, or make her so unlike how I imagine her that I cannot enjoy the story. But Jane Bites Back, for the most part, makes me love Jane (Austen) Fairfax. She is just an un-dead woman trying to make a place for herself in the world, and an author frustrated by her inability to recapture her glory days. My only problem with her character is the circumstances surrounding her becoming a vampire (which I won't spoil here). How a woman of her time, who kept up a fairly robust correspondence, would be able to hide the facts of this rendezvous is beyond me. But I enjoyed her character so much that I could overlook it as a silly MacGuffin, and relish in Jane Austen in our time. She is annoyed more by the fact that she makes no money from the Austen cottage industry than by the fact that is exists at all. At one point she even references Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, and amazingly, found it funny! Those touches really made me love Jane Austen as a character.

The only other flaw is the excerpts from her 'lost' book that the character is trying to publish. Some of the selections are spot-on Austen, and some feel completely out of character. show more But my minor problems only held me up for a few seconds, and then something completely hilarious would happen to poor Jane, and I was back in the story. The side characters are excellent as well, and since the book is obviously set up for sequels, I eagerly await more from Ms. Austen and Mr. Ford. show less

This memoir started off with a good, funny introduction about why the author wanted to be an actor. It moves into her amusing take on drama school, and her struggles to get work after leaving school. The problem is that the entire story is so focused on herself that the other people seem very much like cardboard. Even supposedly dishy info about Jennifer Aniston was flat and not really very dishy, considering I had to read other people's reviews to figure out who in the world she was talking about! I understand that a tell-all has to be careful in it's portrayal of people who have gone on to become rich and famous, but to openly talk about Lorne Michaels eccentricities in one chapter and vaguely talk about Jennifer Aniston in another makes the tone of the book very uneven and ultimately, unsatisfying.

This book starts as an investigation into the aunt the author never knew he had, and turns into a fine meditation on the numerous secrets of his entire family. He discovers that his parents were not the people he thought they were, and comes to terms to the fact that a child may never really know the reasons behind their parents' motivations. This is a moving book, touching on the Holocaust and World War II, but mostly because of the glimpse into the the way mental health issues have been treated in the U.S. in the past century.

Don't expect all of the mysteries to be wrapped up in a neat package though. This book is heartbreaking mostly because in investigating the past of people already deceased, the author can never know the full story, and can only guess and speculate on his mother's motivations. But it is wonderful to see even the small portions of his aunt's life brought to light, tragic as it was, because as the author finds out there are thousands whose stories are lost forever.

If you like America the Book or I am America, then Mass Historia is right up your alley! There is a hilarious entry for every day of the year; and while you could skip around and read the entries as whim takes you, I would recommend reading straight through to gt some of the jokes that are built up over several days. If you are a history buff, this book is especially funny, because you can see the actual history behind the jokes. Good times!

I was disappointed that there was no delivery on the promise made by the front cover: "why simple things become complex (and how complex things can be made simple)". While some of the anecdotes are facinating, and begin to illustrate the complexity theories the author is trying to explain, the book falls short of its promise. When every chapter title is a question, and maybe half of those questions are actually answered, it's a bit of a let down. But if you can ignore the premise and read simply for the facinating insights into such varied topics as linguistics, electronics, business, medicine and more, then give this book a try.