Book Break-Up # 2

It's not me, it's you!

Sometimes a book fails to grab you...or sometimes it grabs you, struggles to hold on and then you are forced to just let go! Either way, you will find yourself on occasion "breaking up" with a book or series. That's what this meme is all about.

We were inspired to participate by Lori at Pure Imagination who was in turn inspired by Carla at The Crooked Shelf...and thus, Book Breakups is born! We thought this was a very cool idea and are going to make it a regular post so we hope to have a button ready for it some time :)

This week, Isalys is breaking up with:

Tantalize (Tantalize #1)
by Cynthia Leitich Smith

I read this book a while back and sadly, I was left disappointed. I picked it up because it had an interesting premise. However, when it was all said and done I felt a bit like a deflated balloon. I closed the last page and thought, "that's it?"

I personally felt that this book is lacking...lacking in a strength & clarity of plot, lacking in development of characters, and lacking in plot resolution. There was so much potential and it did have some interesting parts, but that was not consistent throughout the whole novel.

The 2-star clincher was the ending, or again lack-of. It was like everyone just gave up and the novel just fizzled into nothingness. This book can be described in one word - FORGETTABLE!





I briefly considered reading Eternal {which is not really a sequel but more of a follow-up to Tantalize} in the hope that Eternal would be some sort of redemption - but alas, it's also getting poor reviews.

So this is the end of the road for me with this series :(

Book Break-Up #1

It's not me, it's you!

Sometimes a book fails to grab you...or sometimes it grabs you, struggles to hold on and then you are forced to just let go! Either way, you will find yourself on occasion "breaking up" with a book or series. That's what this meme is all about.

We were inspired to participate by Lori at Pure Imagination who was in turn inspired by Carla at The Crooked Shelf...and thus, Book Breakups is born! We thought this was a very cool idea and are going to make it a regular post so we hope to have a button ready for it next time :)

This week, Isalys is breaking up with:

Black Dagger Brotherhood
by J.R. Ward
Let's settle down now...I'm sure most of you just fell out of your chairs, but get it, dust yourself off and let me 'splain. I loved this series, I really did...but somewhere along the way, J.R. Ward just lost me. Let me break it down for you:

1) The Heroines: I love strong female leads! Women that are feminine, yet can still hold their own against the strong male leads. I felt that most of the female leads in these books were either too weak {Marissa} or too "butchy" {Xhex}. I didn't feel that I, as a woman, could connect or relate to any of them. Bella from book # 1 was the exception.

2) The M/M Vibe: This is not a personal attack on homosexuality or in any way related to my views on the subject, but it's not something I'm entirely comfortable with reading either. I have read several books with gay & lesbian characters, but they are fun & playful and the kind of character you can see yourself being friends with. In this series, it's much more sexually intense. The way I see it, these books were written by a woman for women...why would I want to visualize two guys going at it? Not a turn-on for me, sorry!

3) The Lessers: Granted, these are the bad guys and they are critical to the plot and storyline. It's important to know what is going on, however, I don't want to be in their heads ALL the time. The narrative throughout the books flipped back and forth too much for me. Some of the scenes from the Lessers POV seemed inconsequential and I was oh-so-tempted to skip them altogether. Besides, some of those guys were just downright irritating (Ex, Mr. O *grrrr*)!

4) Too many stories in one book: I feel like Ward tried to tell us too much in one book. We were being led through a maze of drama between the main characters, the Lessers and the many secondary characters. It is important to set up the storyline for the following BOOK, but I only want a taste...not a mouthful!

I don't think it's fair for me to say that I'm so much as "breaking up" with the Brotherhood...it's really more along the lines of "taking a break". I have gotten half way through the series and I am curious to find out what happens with some of the characters...I'm just not in a hurry to!