Review: Partials by Dan Wells

Title: Partials
Author: Dan Wells
Series: Partials Sequence, #1
Format: Paperback, bought
My rating: 1 / 5

Add to Goodreads

Humanity is all but extinguished after a war with Partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island. But sixteen-year-old Kira is determined to find a solution. As she tries desperately to save what is left of her race, she discovers that that the survival of both humans and Partials rests in her attempts to answer questions about the war's origin that she never knew to ask.

Playing on our curiosity of and fascination with the complete collapse of civilization, Partials is, at its heart, a story of survival, one that explores the individual narratives and complex relationships of those left behind, both humans and Partials alike—and of the way in which the concept of what is right and wrong in this world is greatly dependent on one's own point of view.

-- As seen on Goodreads

My Thoughts

Ahh, Partials, what a disaster you turned out to be. When future-me looks back on this book I can imagine I’ll be classing it amongst some of my most hated books – and I only read 251 pages before I began skim reading to see if things improved. They didn’t. Maybe I missed some of the finer details, but there wasn’t anything that grabbed my attention to make me regret skimming on ahead. Let me explain my hatred. *Cracks knuckles*

Whenever I read a dystopian book, it’s inevitable I’ll compare it to The Hunger Games. Those books are pretty much a blueprint to everything I love about the dystopian genre, and everything I crave to experience when I pick up a dystopian book: fast pace; action packed; a real sense of risk; a bond with the characters; awesome writing etc. They’re my benchmark. Yes, it’s a bit unfair, but it’s how I subconsciously as well as consciously compare how I liked a book overall.

Here’s the thing: Partials is too slow. Slow, slow, slow. I don’t mind a slower pace if there’s an equal amount of heart stopping action popping up throughout the story. The glaring problem I had was that nothing happened. In my copy, on page 158 it says: “but nothing happened” and also on 159 it says “but nothing happened”. Why in the world would you even bother writing an action sequence where, quite literally, nothing happens?! The characters didn't do anything beyond talking to each other for dozens of pages at a time, walking through abandoned streets, or riding horse-drawn carts down even more abandoned streets. It’s tedious. For all the warning we get of how terrible The Voice is, and how lethal and horrible the Partials are, honestly, they didn’t seem very threatening in the grand scheme of things.

I haven’t a clue where this impression came from but I thought Paritals was going to be a zombie book. I was expecting hoards of the undead coming to eat every brain in sight and eradicate every glimmer of humanity left in the world. Colour me surprised when I began reading to discover a breeding programme that every woman is forced to participate in. *Grinds teeth* I’ll be honest here, if I had known about this going into the book, I wouldn’t have read it. Forcing pregnancy on anyone is something that’s guaranteed to unleash my inner fire breathing bitch queen. Ohh, I could just imagine someone coming up to me and telling me it was my responsibility, by some bloody proclamation, that I had to pop out a baby once a year as long as my fertility lasted. Honestly, the expression on my face alone would probably cause the coward to run away in fear, and that would be the sensible thing to do. Oh my good grief, heads would ROLL.

Also, the subtle layer of sexism throughout what I read infuriated me even more. I’m not sure if it’s accidental or intentional, but either way, I have some huge issues with ‘traditionally female activities’ being sneered at or classed as lesser. It doesn’t sit well with me on ANY level, and it makes it even worse when the female main character reinforces these themes. Overall it left me feeling very uncomfortable, and angry.

And speaking of the characters, quite frankly, they were unbearable. Kira was the biggest pain in the arse I’ve ever come across in YA. She’s sixteen, yet she acts like she’s freaking forty-six! And, of course, a sixteen year old will be the one to suggest a new avenue of study to enlighten poor little humanity on how to save itself. Feck all the people that were in the field studying for decades before the Break – they haven’t a clue! But the sixteen year old INTERN with TWO YEARS of study is smarter than the lot of ya. Sorry, I can’t buy this. We’re given the excuse that she’s supposed to be some sort of medical/biological genius. After two years of schooling! *Sigh*, I can’t take this stupidity.

Something else that hindered my suspension of disbelief: the book is set 60 years in the future. ONLY 60 YEARS! Since verbal traditions have been passed down through thousands of years – not to mention that buildings can last in various stages of abandonment for hundreds of years – it makes no sense to me whatsoever that they don’t know what an ice-rink or a weather station is. Or where the State of Georgia was located!! If we’re two, three or four hundred years in the future, then maybe I could try and accept it, but not sixty!

Add in endless info-dumping, stagnant writing and not enough action to stem off the boredom, and there was a never going to be a doubt about my overall feelings toward the book. In short, it was slow, boring, dull and pointless – and that was just the characters. The plot and pacing was even worse. Honestly, you won’t be missing anything if you skip reading Partials.

Review: Winterkill by Kate A. Boorman

Title: Winterkill
Author: Kate A. Boorman
Series: Winterkill, #1
Format: Paperback, owned
My rating: 1 / 5

Add to Goodreads

Emmeline knows she’s not supposed to explore the woods outside her settlement. The enemy that wiped out half her people lurks there, attacking at night and keeping them isolated in an unfamiliar land with merciless winters. Living with the shame of her grandmother’s insubordination, Emmeline has learned to keep her head down and her quick tongue silent.

When the settlement leader asks for her hand in marriage, it’s an opportunity for Emmeline to wash the family slate clean—even if she has eyes for another. But before she’s forced into an impossible decision, her dreams urge her into the woods, where she uncovers a path she can’t help but follow. The trail leads to a secret that someone in the village will kill to protect. Her grandmother followed the same path and paid the price. If Emmeline isn’t careful, she will be next.

-- As seen on Goodreads

My Thoughts

Oh Winterkill, I was convinced I’d love you. Both the cover and the synopsis drew me in, and I was almost certain it would be added to my favourites list. I went into this story expecting a fabulous dystopian novel with a horror undertone, but it ended up being a confused mystery story that didn’t appeal to me at all. I spent more time trying to figure out what time period the book was set in than caring what was going on with the characters and the general story line. I’ll warn you now: this review may get a little ranty.

Every story needs a good foundation, and for me, this is usually provided by a combination of three things: world building, setting and time period. I love knowing exactly where a book is set, whether it’s in the world as we know it, or if it’s entirely fictional. I subconsciously look for that sense of stability and equilibrium and from the vague little snippets we’re given in Winterkill, the book seems to be set somewhere in northern North America: most likely in Canada, due to French and English being the languages spoken by the characters, and the intense winters the settlement endures. So excellent, we have our backdrop: Canada.

Now this is where all my issues begin. Is Winterkill set in the past, or the future? If it’s meant to be set in the future, I’m sorry, but you’d have lost me by the second page. I don’t see this as a dystopian, either. The only way this book makes any sort of sense is if it’s an alternative history or a retelling of the discovery and colonisation of North America. The language used throughout the narration is quite modern, but then we get some olden words and sentences thrown in that completely disrupts the flow and rhythm of the story. Oh, and another thing: if I EVER see the word ‘mayhap’ again in my life, it’ll be too soon. If the story is historical, make it fully historical, if it’s modern, make it fully modern, and if it’s futuristic make it bloody futuristic, but the half-past half-future unnecessary confusion drove me completely BATTY! I’m not sure if this constant chopping and changing was meant to create tension and atmosphere, but it didn’t work for me. Honestly, I should have stopped reading by chapter ten.

I didn’t connect with the main character, Emmeline. She’s grown up in a puritanical society where your reputation is everything, and I can understand up to a point why she acts the way she does. Her grandmother was Wayward, and she and her father are Stained, and living with the stigma of her transgressions. But, I was hoping Emmeline would at least attempt to rise above all of that. She whined and wallowed in self-pity far too much, and any sympathy or empathy I had for her was used up by the hundredth page in honesty. I don’t know if she’s bravely stupid or stupidly brave, but after being punished for missing Virtue Talks, the very next day she decides to go explore the forbidden woods. If she’s caught she’ll be taken to the Crossroads and hanged. Girl, do you have an ounce of cop on in that head of yours?? If you’re going to risk your neck, at least wait until things settle down for a day or two! Oh! But of course, the Council leader is in love with you, and wants your mind-numbingly dull hand in marriage. My bad! Oh! Buy why stop there! Might as well have another pathetic asshole of a boy fall in love with you too! ‘Cause you’re so desirable and all.

Fuck. My. Life.

If all of this wasn’t bad enough, the pacing was painfully slow. And I mean snail moving across molasses slow. Honestly I was hoping for a ferocious attack by the malmaci to spice things up. With the settlement being fortified and guards stationed all around the perimeter to prevent these vicious ghostly beasts from taking the poor helpless villagers, I was expecting nightly raids and bloody battles of epicness. But, no, the terrifying beasts have never managed to breech the walls of the wooden fortifications, and Takings are few and far between. Oh my, how… terrifying.

*Sigh* I hate writing negative reviews. I wanted to love this book so much, and it completely sucks when expectations aren’t met. The concept was so awesome, but the execution was a complete let down for me. Can’t love ‘em all, unfortunately.

Review: Rome In Love by Anita Hughes

Title: Rome In Love
Author: Anita Hughes
Series: Standalone
Format: eARC, kindly provided by
St Martin's Griffin (Thank you!!)
My rating: 1 / 5

Add to Goodreads

When Amelia Tate is cast to play the Audrey Hepburn role in a remake of Roman Holiday, she feels as if all her dreams have come true. She has a handsome boyfriend, is portraying her idol in a major motion picture, and gets to live in beautiful Rome for the next two months.

Once there, she befriends a young woman named Sophie with whom she begins to explore the city. Together, they discover all the amazing riches that Rome has to offer. But when Amelia's boyfriend breaks up with her over her acting career, her perfect world begins to crumble.

While moping in her hotel suite, Amelia discovers a stack of letters written by Audrey Hepburn that start to put her own life into perspective. Then, she meets Philip, a handsome journalist who is under the impression that she is a hotel maid, and it appears as if things are finally looking up. The problem is she can never find the right time to tell Philip her true identity. Not to mention that Philip has a few secrets of his own. Can Amelia finally have both the career and love that she's always wanted, or will she be forced to choose again?

With her sensory descriptions of the beautiful sites, decadent food, and high fashion of Rome, Hughes draws readers into this fast-paced and superbly written novel. Rome in Love will capture the hearts of readers everywhere.

-- As seen on Goodreads

My Thoughts

Oh, boy. Rome in Love and I didn’t get along very well. Essentially, the book is a retelling of the movie Roman Holiday. I love retellings in general and fairy-tale retellings in particular, and I thought this would be a really nice change of pace and a chance to see how a contemporary version would work for me. And it’s set in Italy! Who doesn’t love Italy?! Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped.

I really wish I could sugar coat this, but there isn’t a nice way to say it: I absolutely hated the writing style. The only way I can describe it is formulistic and emotionless. I need to feel some sort of connection to the story, and I felt nothing throughout the entire book. I’m a foodie and the descriptions of food in the first chapter or so was awesome! But… then I began noticing a repetitive trend: every single scene and everything the characters do is described in the same way. She saw blah, blah, blah. She smelled blah, blah, blah. She ate blah, blah, blah. She studied ... She felt ... She heard ... She climbed ... She walked ... Just remove the blah, blah, blah, and ellipses and insert any descriptive words you like and it’s annoyingly repetitive. And this isn’t just one or two sentences dispersed throughout the chapter, it is actually whole blocks of text used like this to describe what’s going on. I think the intention is to create an immersive atmosphere, but for me, it didn’t work. It was so unappealing and it detracted from the story and the characters completely.

The characters are usually my main focus when I read, and if I love the characters I can forgive a whole load of things I dislike. Sadly, the characters didn’t work for me either. This goes back to the writing style again, but there was far too much attention put on unnecessary details. I don’t care about bicycles going by, or crossing guards, or what clothes people are wearing or what they smell like, or what every random character is eating, just please, please, please, make me FEEL something toward the main characters! With the way the book is written, there is so much focus on the outside world that the characters don’t get the chance to progress and develop from mere names on a page.

Amelia’s character felt a little bit hypocritical at times. We’re constantly told how much she wants to be a successful actress, yet her actions in the book suggest she’s not very committed at all. We don’t get to see much of the actual filming of the movie – which sucks – just a random sentence or paragraph here or there. She’s in Rome for two months and they’re shooting on location, yet she gets to spend a lot of time exploring the city and doing her own thing. This didn’t really gel with what I would imagine the environment of a Warner Brothers blockbuster movie being filming on location would be like. Especially since they invested a hundred million dollars into the movie! I don’t know… it just didn’t feel right to me.

I was hoping to love this book, but alas, Rome in Love was not for me. While the concept is fabulous, the writing style put me off very early on and it definitely influenced my feelings for the entire book. A lot of people really enjoyed this book, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, you can’t love ‘em all.

Review: Waterfall by Lauren Kate

Title: Waterfall
Author: Lauren Kate
Series: Teardrop, #2
Format: eARC, kindly provided by the
publishers via Netgalley (Thank you!!)
My rating: 1 / 5

Add to Goodreads

Heart-stopping romance, devastating secrets and dark magic, from bestselling author Lauren Kate. The stunning sequel to Teardrop.

Eureka's tears have flooded the earth and now Atlantis is rising, along with its evil king, Atlas. Eureka is the only one who can stop him – but first she must learn how to fight.

She travels across the ocean with Ander to try and make sense of the dark world her sorrow has created. But dark secrets are hidden in the depths – will she be strong enough to defeat Atlas, or is her broken heart just what he needs to power his rising kingdom?

Eureka has the chance to save the world. But she'll have to give up on everything – even love . . .

-- As seen on Goodreads

My Thoughts

*I received an eARC from the publishers via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This didn't influence my opinion in any way.*

I love mythology, and once I found out this series involved Atlantis I HAD to read it. I read Teardrop quite a while back and while I didn’t really love that book, I was curious enough about the overall concept to continue on with Waterfall and see how things progressed. Unfortunately, this isn’t anywhere near the continuation I was hoping for. This might sound a little harsh, but I can’t word it any other way: I didn’t like anything about this book.

Plot and writing style: It wasn’t my cuppa at all. Right from the first page I was struggling, and it took me over a month to read Waterfall – considering I usually read a book or two a week, this should have been the hint that I wouldn’t enjoy the book. The overall story was very hard to follow at times, and it felt very choppy at best with nothing to mesh and bring everything together. It was very detail-light, and nothing was properly fleshed out. I struggled to picture how the world is supposed to look, or even where the book is set, and this links into my next point…

World-building: Correction, WHAT world-building?! This is the part I’m most frustrated about. Once I see the word ‘Atlantis’ thrown around, I want lots and lots of Atlantis. I don’t care about anything else – GIMME ATLANTIS! Eureka wants to fix what she created? Good for her… now, gimme Atlantis. She’s confused, moody and hurting? I don’t really CARE. I still don’t see ATLANTIS! She can’t choose between Brooks and Ander – Oh my heart BLEEDS for her. KILL THEM ALL! And painfully! JUST. GIVE. ME. ATLANTIS!!

One-dimensional characters: The characters are the bread and butter of why I read, and when I don’t like ANYONE in the story, I begin to question why I stuck with the book for so long. It’s a little obvious I didn’t like Eureka. She was a pain for the vast majority of the book, and her narrative was agonising to read at times. Even when I don’t connect with the main character, there’s usually a secondary character I can connect with, but unfortunately all the other characters were just as flat, emotionless and unappealing. The only one I had a few vague moments of connection with was Ander, but it wasn’t enough to help me enjoy the story.

Sadly, Waterfall just wasn’t for me. I was completely bored with everything that happened, and I had to force myself to keep reading, and I found myself skimming over pages rather than being caught up in an awesome story. I was under the impression that this was going to be a trilogy… but with the ending, I’m struggling to see how another book will work. I haven’t read any of Kate’s other books, but I do own a copy of Fallen. I’m a little hesitant to start it now as I didn’t click with her writing style here. Hopefully when I get around to trying out that series I’ll enjoy it.

Review: Lucky Number Four by Amanda Jason

Title: Lucky Number Four
Author: Amanda Jason
Series: Standalone
Format: Kindle
My rating: 1 / 5

Add to Goodreads

Pandora Ann Phillips' life is just normal-crazy

Her mom's a psychic, her dad's mom is a snob, her mom's parental units are "too down to earth" and her best friends are newlyweds. Okay, so her best friends being newlyweds isn't really abnormal, but living with them in a cramped two-bedroom apartment definitely is. Sex, sex, sex is totally on their minds. Actually it's not only on their minds, but it's on the kitchen table, couch, on top of the washer...well, you get the picture.

Being a celibate (not by choice, mind you) full-time college student, and an almost full-time barista, Pandora can't afford to lose anymore sleep. So, she seeks out a new place to lay her head. Enter three "drool worthy" male models that are looking for a fourth roommate and they want her...and won't take no for an answer.

Hilarity ensues as Pandora's life turns completely upside down, and she begins to wonder if it will ever be the same again!

-- As seen on Goodreads

My Thoughts

Sometimes, things just start off on the wrong foot and they don’t get back on track. Unfortunately, I can’t sugar coat this: for me, Lucky Number Four was a complete disaster. On the surface, it could have been a really funny, fluffy contemporary read, but the execution left everything to be desired. Seriously, it reads like an unnecessarily drama-filled urban-fantasy novel - without the supernatural creatures - not a contemporary. I didn’t like the writing style, everything felt jumbled together; the characters felt undeveloped and the plot was just too improbable for my tastes.

The first of the red flags should have been the name of the main female character: Dora. Yes, the synopsis says Pandora, but she actually goes by the name Dora. I may have pictured Dora the Explorer all grown up. It became very awkward, VERY quickly. The second warning was the forced humour. I LOVE books that can make me laugh, but sadly, this wasn’t one of them. This could just be me, but everything in the book was the exact opposite of everything I find funny.

Dora lives with her two best friends, who just happen to be newlyweds. She feels like she’s encroaching on their newly wedded bliss, so she decides to move out of their shared apartment. She finds an advertisement in the local supermarket looking for a roommate, and she decides to take a chance on it. She arrives at the apartment, knocks on the door, and a half-naked male supermodel answers the door. Oh, let me clarify, a famous male supermodel. Turns out that there are three of them living there, and they need a new roommate. A couple of minutes later, Dora sits down and they demand she move in. Now, she did exactly what I would do. She ran. But, naturally, they don’t take no for an answer. While Dora is in college, they move all her stuff out of her apartment, and into their own. They also convince her best-friend and her husband to move in, too!

*Sigh*

I judge contemporary books in a completely different way to every other book I read. I have just one hope: what happens in the book needs to be within the realms of everyday possibility. Like, if I looked up and saw a stranger walking down the street, I hope that what I read could potentially be happening in that person’s life right now. While I suppose someone technically could be moving into an apartment with three drop dead gorgeous male supermodels, I found the way it was handled completely ridiculous. When you add in the same old predictable drama and twists that keeps cropping up in New Adult… it becomes so tedious to read. I wasn’t surprised at any stage, and I had a pretty good idea what would happen next. Turns out, I was spot on.

I wish I had something positive to say, but I honestly didn’t find anything that appealed to me. The premise had SO MUCH potential, and I’m really disappointed that it didn’t turn out like I hoped. Please, if you’re curious about reading the book, don’t let my opinions put you off. It didn’t work for me, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. Try it for yourself and make up your own mind :)

Review: Accession by Terah Edun

Title: Accession
Author: Terah Edun
Series: Sarath Web, #1
My rating: 1 / 5
Pages: 203

Add to Goodreads

Sixteen-year-old Katherine Thompson wasn’t trained to rule a coven. That was her sister – perfect, beautiful Rose. But when a mysterious plane crash kills off the heir presumptive of the Sandersville coven she has no choice.

After stepping in to fill her sister’s shoes, Katherine realizes she didn’t have a clue – faery wars, depressed trolls and angry unicorns are just the beginning.

For centuries, her family has served the high Queens on both sides of the Atlantic but it is a well-known rule that mid-level witches stay away from high-level Queens.

But when Katherine’s youngest cousin vanishes without a trace in the Atlanta court and no one wants to investigate, Katherine decides to step into the darkness on her own. She will soon discover that nothing, in a queen's court, is as it seems.

-- As seen on Goodreads

Review: Girl with Guitar by Caisey Quinn

Title: Girl with Guitar
Author: Caisey Quinn
Series: Kylie Ryans, #1
Format: Kindle, owned
My rating: 1 / 5

Add to Goodreads

New Adult. MA 17+ Content.

After Kylie’s dad dies in a freak accident, he leaves her with nothing other than her crazy step-mother, Darla, and the ability to play guitar. When Darla kicks Kylie out and she loses her job all in the same day, she hops a bus to Nashville determined to make her late father’s dreams come true. Waitressing and saving her pennies to record a demo, her big break comes when she’s asked to join a tour going down the tubes with once platinum album-selling country music superstar Trace Corbin. But touring with Trace is hardly a dream come true since he’s pretty much drinking his career down the drain. If Kylie can’t pull Trace out of his rut, he’ll pull her and her dreams down with him.

My Thoughts

I’ve seen Girl with Guitar floating around for a while now, with lots of praise attached. So, I was expecting a really good NA read for a change. Unfortunately, I didn’t work for me. At all! I feel like I’ve read a completely different book to everyone else.

Things started out really well, and I could see where all the praise was coming from. Kylie has lost her job and got kicked out of her step-mothers home on the same day. She has dreams of becoming a country singer, and she has signed up for an open mic night taking place in a bar in Nashville. She makes her way to the city, and is at the right place at the right time to land a waitressing job in the bar hosting the show. After her performance, she gets an offer to go on tour with Trace Corbin, an established country star who is singing in the bar the same night.

I was rooting for Kylie at this stage. She had personality, fight and backbone, and I wanted to see her journey into the limelight. I wanted to experience the highs, lows and the struggles of getting up on stage the first time and life on the road… But we didn’t. All of that was skipped! I really, really, really, don’t understand why! Isn’t that the point to reading a book involving music, bands etc? Well, it’s certainly one of the things I look for anyway.

All of this was before the 20% mark, and I rapidly lost interest. I will be the first to admit country music is not very high on my loves list, but I’ve read country music books before and liked them enough, so I didn’t see any reason why the music genre would be a negative. And it wasn’t. With NA books, I need to connect with the characters very quickly, and have some sort of empathy with them. I did like Kylie in the beginning, until she regressed and became a whiny, immature, dependent little girl. It came out of nowhere! She got on my nerves suddenly and I wasn’t expecting it.

I disliked Trace from the start, and he didn’t regain any favour whatsoever over the course of the book. He’s an arrogant, alcoholic asshole that treated Kylie and everyone around him like crap, yet thinks he can tell her what to do! This is a no-go for me. I can’t take anyone telling me what to do in real life, so I don’t like reading it in book form either.

“As much as she didn’t want to concern herself about him, she was still feeling pretty grateful that he’d cared enough to punch a guy out on her behalf . Even if it was totally unnecessary.”

This quote pretty much sums up what I found hard to digest. Overreactions are one thing, and yes people overreact all the time. But to actually feel grateful for Trace punching an innocent guy for no reason is another thing altogether! I can’t accept or like it. Also, maybe I’m weird, but alcoholism is not sexy. Personally, someone smelling like they’ve been fermented in a distillery isn’t attractive to me. *shrugs*

Everything was so tame! If you are going to have a bad boy, make him really bad! It’s all about the delivery, look at comedians. They get away with so much, and it’s HOW they say things, not WHAT they say. Apply the same thing to bad boys. Here, what the characters say completely irked me. The way things are approached, I didn’t find it appealing, interesting or attractive in any way. It swung from creepy, to annoying to corny.

With fantasy or sci-fi books, I tend to be a bit more open minded with the way things are described. In contemporary books, especially books involving music, bands and touring, I expect some sort of believability. Ok, the characters live in a tour bus: they have everything you would expect to find on a tour bus, and three bedrooms. Huh? THREE. BEDROOMS. On a tour bus?? That seems a little unrealistic to me. Bunks, yes, they are a tour bus staple. I can’t suspend disbelief enough in contemporary to accept how some things are described. This is not the only thing that bothered me, but it was the one that annoyed me most. Little things like this, as well as disliking the characters, jumbled together to put me off the story.

On the surface, Girl with Guitar should have been a book I liked, but it ended up being not right for me at all. I held great hopes for the first 20%, after that I really should have just given up, but I held onto hope that things would improve.

Review: Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon

Title: Carrier of the Mark
Author: Leigh Fallon
Series: Carrier of the Mark, #1
Format: Paperback, owned
My rating: 1 / 5

Add to Goodreads

Their love was meant to be.

When Megan Rosenberg moves to Ireland, everything in her life seems to fall into place. After growing up in America, she's surprised to find herself feeling at home in her new school. She connects with a group of friends, and she is instantly drawn to darkly handsome Adam DeRÍs.

But Megan is about to discover that her feelings for Adam are tied to a fate that was sealed long ago—and that the passion and power that brought them together could be their ultimate destruction.

-- As seen on Goodreads

My Thoughts

Welcome to Twilight: Irish Style.

Before I begin, this will probably end up being a tad rant-infested, but I’ll try to tone it down!

I have made a discovery. The more notes I take when I’m reading; the more I hate the book. I wrote six A4 pages of notes. Front and back… in very small writing. And yeah, I’m one of those people that won’t highlight, write on or desecrate a book in anyway. Congratulations Carrier of the Mark. You unleashed my obsessive side.

I don’t feel like I’ve read a story, I feel like I’ve read a draft of a story. Everything is very convenient and predictable with info-dumping poorly disguised as conversations. The writing style is very simplistic, and I felt like I was skim-reading but I actually read every word. It lacks a lot of basic detail that I feel is needed. I’m not asking for a dense overly descriptive novel here, all I want is some depth and legitimate feelings. There was no spark, no life evident anywhere. Think of the difference between a Lady Gaga concert… and finger puppets. One uses all the senses, the other has its place, but at the end of the day is basic.

If you’ve ever read Twilight, you have the step-by-step timeline of Carrier of the Mark. Not that long ago, I criticised Dead Beautiful for reminding me of Twilight. Dead Beautiful is a unique masterpiece in comparison, as event after event that was depicted in Twilight, also happens here. At least with Dead Beautiful, it had a unique half to it.

Let me give a few examples. We have the eyes meeting over the school yard scene; the guy rescues the girl magically scene; the “I should but I can’t stay away from you” scene; the meeting the family that disapprove scene… should I continue? The only thing missing was a baseball match in an out of the way location, but considering it's set in Cork, it would be a hurling or GAA match. I probably should have stopped reading and gone and re-read Twilight. Chances are I would have enjoyed it better.

In case you don’t know, I’m Irish. I get that some things Irish might be a little confusing to the non-Irish born, but for goodness sake, give readers some bloody credit! I absolutely hated all the explanations of Irishness and the way it’s presented:

For example “[…] the superintendent from the Kinsale Gardaí (the Irish police) […]”

Ok, maybe I have an advantage on all this, with speaking the lingo and knowing what a fada is, but for goodness sake using this example alone, I think Gardaí or even Garda would be pretty easy to guess what the meaning was! I guess I’m not the target audience (understatement of the year!)

To add another negative, insta-love rears its ugly head yet again. Megan and Adam have barely had two conversations, and their first kiss is on page 104. Barely a third of the way into the book, and their futures are set in stone. All over a little peck! I give up. Any affection shown happens too often for it to mean anything. There should be a purpose for everything, not just a “ooh, lets add another smooch here… and here… oh and also here!” approach.

I didn’t connect with any of the characters. Megan is originally from America, and she and her father move to Kinsale in County Cork when her father’s job is transferred. The sun must shine out of Adam’s backside, because he was all I kept reading about. I was sick of hearing how wonderful Adam was, how impossible it would be to live without him, and how she has now found her one true purpose. And this was all before the hundred and fiftieth page!

At one stage, the characters are out sailing and Megan is hit on the head with the boom and she falls in. I don’t think the desired response is me having a “Ha Ha” moment, Nelson style.

And Adam the poor little gosson, just can’t stay away from Megan. Gee, I wonder where I came across something similar before?!

“But I’m not strong enough to stay away. I think our destinies are too closely linked to be diverted to a different course.”

*Snort* Odds are if a guy said that to me I’d be all… See that door? I’m going to walk out it and never come back.

When “trackers” appeared toward the end, that was the ultimate kiss of death and cemented in my mind that this is a Twilight rip-off. I hate, hate, HATE books that resort to copying successful story-lines to get notice, and I can’t think of Carrier of the Mark in any other way than this. It’s exactly like Twilight, it’s actually quite sickening. This is one of those instances that I wish I had paid more attention to the reviews. I went in with an “It can’t be THAT bad” attitude. I can honestly say that yes it is that bad, and I found out the hard way.

Just a few quotes that made me want to rage-quit:

“I felt like we were being pulled together by some unknown force”

– Yeah… it’s called Insta-love!

“I had a whole new purpose – and it all revolved around this boy by my side”

*feels blood pressure rising*

“When a guy is that gorgeous, he could sprout wings and sport a tutu and I’d still have a bit of him”