Tag: storeys of stories

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Deal With The Devil by Kit Rocha — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
by Kit Rocha

Tor Books
July 28, 2020

From Goodreads:

Nina is an information broker with a mission–she and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to save the hopeless in a crumbling America.

Knox is the bitter, battle-weary captain of the Silver Devils. His squad of supersoldiers went AWOL to avoid slaughtering innocents, and now he’s fighting to survive.

They’re on a deadly collision course, and the passion that flares between them only makes it more dangerous. They could burn down the world, destroying each other in the process…

Or they could do the impossible: team up.

Thanks to the good people at Tor Books and Raincoast Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book had me with four words: “mercenary librarians,” and “super soldiers.” Nothing after that mattered. 

After receiving the ARC, I looked into the author a bit since I had never heard of Kit Rocha before. That’s when I saw Kit Rocha usually writes erotica. That threw me for a loop! I’ve never read erotica and never been interested in reading any. But all of a sudden I start wondering if I’m about to crack open an erotica novel with mercenary librarians doing super soldiers and vice versa. And now that I’ve finished the book, I still don’t know if that’s what I read or not. 

It may not sound like it, but that’s a compliment. As someone who has no frame of reference for erotic books, I couldn’t tell you if this qualifies, but I also can’t say that it doesn’t. Sure, there’s sex, but nowhere near what I would have thought would be in an erotic story (again, no frame of reference.) What I know I found was a great story full of action, suspense, and pretty decent characters.

Oddly enough, considering my lack of interest in erotica (and romance) I found I really enjoyed those aspects of this book. The main characters with their back and forth, their longing for each other, mixed with a mistrust for, well… everything, was a a roller-coaster ride that had me burning through pages.

The chapters bounce us around from Nina’s head to Knox’s, and getting to know what she’s thinking, and what he’s thinking, but seeing them unable to connect the dots was maddening. It’s like when the staff of The Office was watching that logo bounce around the tv screen, desperately wanting it to perfectly hit the corner. And then it finally does and everyone cheers. That’s what the relationship felt like.

The plot could have used a little more… something. It was fine. There’s nothing wrong with it, and I wasn’t bored, but I just wanted a little more. Instead of it being an integrated aspect of the story, it was more or less an excuse for the characters to spend time together and be in a certain place. The stuff that happened could have happened anywhere for a number of reasons. I guess I wanted something that only could have happened in one a specific place because the setting and everything else was so deeply engrained with everything else.

Then again, maybe that’s me expecting too much.

Overall this book was a ton of fun to read. I looked forward to picking it up each time, and if there’s a sequel it will definitely be on my TBR. 

Fun fact about this post: Kit Rocha is the pseudonym for co-writing team Donna Herren and Bree Bridges.

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Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

SHOREFALL
by Robert Jackson Bennett

Del Rey Books
April 21, 2020

From Goodreads:

The upstart firm Foundryside is struggling to make it. Orso Igancio and his star employee, former thief Sancia Grado, are accomplishing brilliant things with scriving, the magical art of encoding sentience into everyday objects, but it’s not enough. The massive merchant houses of Tevanne won’t tolerate competition, and they’re willing to do anything to crush Foundryside.

But even the merchant houses of Tevanne might have met their match. An immensely powerful and deadly entity has been resurrected in the shadows of Tevanne, one that’s not interested in wealth or trade routes: a hierophant, one of the ancient practitioners of scriving. And he has a great fascination for Foundryside, and its employees – especially Sancia.

Now Sancia and the rest of Foundryside must race to combat this new menace, which means understanding the origins of scriving itself – before the hierophant burns Tevanne to the ground.

Thanks to the good people at NetGalley and Del Ray Books for providing me with an eGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So, this is book two of The Founders Trilogy, and now I need book three. Now. Right now. Go ahead, RJB. I’ll just sit here and wait. *checks watch, looks around for 3 seconds, checks watch again* Okay, maybe I can’t just sit around waiting for it, but I’m not sure how I’m supposed to keep living on in quarantine without the next book!

What was so good about it? Well, I’m glad you asked. My answer is simple. Everything.

It’s these characters! 

In the start of book one, I didn’t know how to feel about any of them. Who am I supposed to like, and who do I hate? Who’s a good guy, who’s a bad guy? By the end, I still didn’t really know who was good or bad, but I loved them all. This rag tag group of survivors continue doing the one thing they seem best at: surviving while cutting you with sarcastic quips.

Between Foundryside and Shorefall, our cast of characters have been busy. They’ve been building. Creating a life for themselves that is part of what they used to be and partly something new. Their relationships have developed into something deeper and more meaningful and they’ve all changed a little as people. And none of this is given in an info dump. It’s something you see for yourself as the pages turn.

It’s this magic system!

This might be my favourite magic system I’ve ever read. RJB takes the time to acknowledge the science of how things work just before he shows you how the rules of physics, time, distance are snapped in half for our enjoyment. It’s not quite magic and science working hand-in-hand, but I’m a reader who really appreciates when science is addressed.

It’s this writer!

Robert Jackson Bennett might be a poet with prose, but I couldn’t tell you. Not only because I wouldn’t trust myself to make such a bold distinction, but also because I was relentlessly pulled through the pages without the time to look at sentence structure, style of prose, or choice of words. RJB is effortless to read. As someone who often stops dead in the middle of a page to ask myself, “why would the author use that word?” I can’t recall a single thing making me stop to ask myself anything.

It’s this trilogy!

When I found myself near the end of the book, and thinking I had reached the books ending, I felt a little disappointed. It was a better ending that I had read in a lot of books, but it wasn’t the kind of ending I expected after Foundryside. But the thing is, that wasn’t the ending. I turned the page, the ending began, and I could barely hold on to my seat! Chaos isn’t a wild enough word. 

Shorefall takes everything you knew from reading Foundryside, and changes it all. You think you know the characters, and they change. You think you know the magic system, and it expands. You think you know Tevanne, and it sheds its skin and becomes something new. 

RJB, if you happen the read this, just tell me what I need to do to get book three out of you. Keep in mind that the law frowns on human sacrifice. I’m not saying it’s off the table, just know the part about the frowning.

Fun fact about this post: This is the earliest I’ve ever posted an ARC review!

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Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

RUTHLESS GODS
by Emily A. Duncan

Macmillan
April 7, 2020

From Goodreads:

Darkness never works alone…

Nadya doesn’t trust her magic anymore. Serefin is fighting off a voice in his head that doesn’t belong to him. Malachiasz is at war with who–and what–he’s become.

As their group is continually torn apart, the girl, the prince, and the monster find their fates irrevocably intertwined. They’re pieces on a board, being orchestrated by someone… or something. The voices that Serefin hears in the darkness, the ones that Nadya believes are her gods, the ones that Malachiasz is desperate to meet—those voices want a stake in the world, and they refuse to stay quiet any longer.

Thanks to the good people at NetGalley and Macmillan for providing me with a eGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wicked Saints, the predecessor of Ruthless Gods, was a strong debut with enticing characters, a great premise, a unique magic system, and limitless potential. Ruthless Gods, however, didn’t follow through on any of of the first book’s promises the way I had hoped.

As we rejoin our beloved characters from book one. A little time has passed, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing really happened and it seems like maybe they just say around waiting for the second book to start.

They thing proceed to embark on a journey that none of them knows anything about, including why they’re actually doing it at all. Each one of them then spends the rest of the book flip-flopping back and forth enough to frustrate any politician. It goes something like this:

I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate hime, I LOVE HIM, I hate him, I hate him…

This kind of conflict can be great if there are reasons for each step, but without any reason at all it reads much more like a group of people who should be medicated.

Without a clear goal to the seemingly random quest and characters would say one thing and do another, everything about this story seems listless and random.

I was excited to read this sequel, but unfortunately I found nothing but letdown. It was left open for at least one more book, but at this point, I can’t imagine I’m going to pick it up.

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Wanderers by Chuck Wendig — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

WANDERERS
by Chuck Wendig

Del Ray
July 9, 2019

From Goodreads:

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

For on their journey, they will discover an America convulsed with terror and violence, where this apocalyptic epidemic proves less dangerous than the fear of it. As the rest of society collapses all around them–and an ultraviolent militia threatens to exterminate them–the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart–or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

There are many words that come to mind when I think about describing Wanderers. Thoughtful. Prophetic. Disturbing. Entertaining. Funny. Heartfelt. Relevant. Amazing. And that’s just the tip of this epidemic iceberg. If I had to boil it down to a single word to describe Wanderers: Important.

From the opening chapter, this book left me wanting more. More action, more confrontation, and more answers! Every time a question was answered, two more took its place.

The sleepwalkers are driven down the road by a cast of characters I won’t soon forget. Oddly enough, considering they become known as shepherds, they’re all black sheep of their respective flocks. Such personality in each one, and real enough that you can feel the joy when something good comes their way, or the dragging disappointment when they make a decision that you, the reader, don’t agree with. And there are plenty of bad decisions being made!

At 782 pages, it’s a long story! (If it’s ever made for the screen, it better be a Netflix series and not a 2 hour movie.) But the story doesn’t lose you. It doesn’t go off in tangents of whimsy. Believe it or not, it’s very streamlined. I tried to look at it and see what could have been cut, and the answer is nothing. Everything Mr. Wendig left in this book was crucial to telling the story. He didn’t even spend time leading into the “walkers”. You start reading, and in the back of your mind, you’re thinking, “I wonder how long it’ll be before we actually see a—Oh, there’s one.”

I’m not sure how I feel about the ending. I read it around the same time as a certain Bionic Bookworm, and I know she hated the ending. I pretty sure I don’t hate it. But I do have questions. And I don’t just mean the normal kind of questions where the author would say, “I’m leaving that up to your imagination!” Before giggling and running away to hide in a forrest (unless you’re inside somewhere, in which case they would have to hide behind a couch or a vending machine, but still giggling.) My questions are more like, HOW? Many things are explained, scientific reasons given that are convincing enough for lamen like me. And then there are a few things left completely unexplained. Small things, to be fair. Small but nagging. 

But why do I call this book important?

Wanderers tackles a wide gamut of cultural issues that are all extremely relevant, even more so in the wake of the current Coronavirus situation. In addition to that, racism, religion, sexism, politics, technology dependance, violence, and society as a whole. I wouldn’t say there’s a deep dive on any one of these issues, but they’re all there. At the very least, a book like this has the potential to start a dialogue that could turn into something bigger. It’s not going to solve racism, but maybe it makes a few people think twice. Maybe someone puts a little more kindness into their day and it spreads as far and as wide as any virus. 

This is easily my favourite book of the year so far. Warning: it’s going to stick with you. It’s a book hangover waiting to happen. And it’s the kind of book that made me worry that the more great books I read, the harder it’s going to be to find books that are great. Don’t wait. Start now, especially because it’s going to take a while!

Fun fact about this post: I first discovered Chuck Wendig on his blog where he doles out writing advice, long-ass posts about apples, and macro photography on Monday, and does it all while being absolutely hilarious. www.terribleminds.com
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The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

THE UNSPOKEN NAME
by A.K. Larkwood

Tor Books
February 11, 2020

From Goodreads:

What if you knew how and when you will die?

Csorwe does — she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.

But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard’s loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.

But Csorwe will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

The good people at Tor Books and NetGalley provided me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Unspoken Name was a fascinating premise with some great characters, but despite a plethora of glowing reviews from the rest of the world, the plot just didn’t come through for me.

The premise is a young girl, chosen to be ritual sacrifice, given a chance at the last minute to escape death and become something far greater. A life spent helping, and learning from, a great and powerful wizard. (No. Not the wizard of Oz.) Under his training, she’ll become a warrior, spy, and assassin, though the degree she does any of those things is up for debate.

I was in love with this premise. It showed so much process, but I found it to be full of half-truths. And very quickly, the book becomes about something else completely. But more on that later.

The characters were fantastic. I enjoyed them all. Deep, developed, and all with their own lives and backstories. These weren’t just people waiting in the wings until the novel needed them. However, after getting to know them, they started to do things that completely went against their nature, at least as far as I understood it. Gave me the impression that many of their decisions were based purely on plot development, which made everything feel just a little cardboard.

I usually enjoy when a book can surprise me. This book did that a lot, but not in a good way. Most of twists and turns didn’t make sense to me, which as I said above, the characters had something to do with. But also, you’re told this book is one thing, and it ends up being another all-together.

With the amount of love this book is getting, I feel like I’ve missed something. I would suggest you take my review as a grain of salt (or less) and try it out yourself.

Fun fact about this post: Yesterday I said I was going to cut down and requesting ARCs, and then requested two more ARCs. I hate myself.
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JAY-Z: Made in America by Michael Eric Dyson – Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

jayZMadeInAmerica

 

JAY-Z: MADE IN AMERICA
by Michael Eric Dyson

St. Martin’s Press
November 26, 2019

From Goodreads:

JAY-Z: Made in America is the fruit of Michael Eric Dyson’s decade of teaching the work of one of the greatest poets this nation has produced, as gifted a wordsmith as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Rita Dove. But as a rapper, he’s sometimes not given the credit he deserves for just how great an artist he’s been for so long.

This book wrestles with the biggest themes of JAY-Z’s career, including hustling, and it recognizes the way that he’s always weaved politics into his music, making important statements about race, criminal justice, black wealth and social injustice. As he enters his fifties, and to mark his thirty years as a recording artist, this is the perfect time to take a look at JAY-Z’s career and his role in making this nation what it is today.

In many ways, this is JAY-Z’s America as much as it’s Pelosi’s America, or Trump’s America, or Martin Luther King’s America. JAY-Z has given this country a language to think with and words to live by.

The good people at NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press provided me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I’ve always had respect for Jay-Z. I haven’t been a listener since the beginning, but I started tuning in about 15 years ago. Anyone who can get to the top of the charts and stay there for DECADES is certainly doing something right. 

What this book did was show me the side of the story I wasn’t paying attention to. The personal side of Jay-Z. The political side. The entrepreneur. The freedom fighter. The movement leader. 

It was so interesting to read about who influenced him and who he’s influenced since. It also talked a little about the beefs he’s had and dug into what rivalries are all about in general. They aren’t nearly as personal as they might seem (not all of them, anyway.)

My absolute favourite aspect of this book was a breakdown and a deciphering of many of his lyrics. 

Truthfully, the meaning in his songs wasn’t buried as deep as I make it seem. I was just terrible at understanding them on my own. If I was a little more curious, I might have looked up things like blight hustle vs bright hustle, but I never did. 

The references get for more impressive when reading about the reasoning behind them. Any musician can drop Andy Warhol’s name because they heard someone talking about him and knew he was an artist. It’s completely different when you read about Jay-Z’s interest and ownership in fine art. It’s not just a name drop for him. When he says Warhol, it’s a calculated reference.

While this isn’t an official biography by any means, it’s such an interesting read for anyone who’s interested in Jay-Z, rap culture, or the music industry as a whole. 

Fun fact about this post: This book brought Jay-Z back into my regular playlist.
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January 2020 Wrap-Up

Posted on by J.W. Martin

January is over? Already? Finally?

On one hand, I can’t believe it’s already February, but on the other hand it feels like Christmas was 6 years ago. How does that happen?

Anyway, it’s been a while since I did one of the monthly wrap-up thingies, but I did a ton of reading (more listening) this month. Then there’s the Cheapskate Challenge to check in with, and my very first use of an awesome bookish gift from my wife!

Books I read this month

TEN! I don’t think I’ve ever read that many books in a single month before. To be fair, the majority of them were audiobooks, but even so… TEN!

Strange Exit
by Parker Peevyhouse

 Digital ARC

The Girl in the Tower (Winternight #2)
by Katherine Arden

Audiobook

The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner #2)
by James Dashner

Audiobook

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
by Mark Manson

Audiobook

The Long Walk
by Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)

Audiobook

The Shining
byStephen King

Audiobook

The Winter of the Witch (Winternight #3)
by Katherine Arden

Audiobook

Mr. Monster (John Cleaver #2)
by Dan Wells

Audiobook

Obsidio (Illuminae Files #3)
by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Hardcover

Own the Day, Own Your Life
by Aubrey Marcus

Audiobook

 

The Cheapskate Reading Challenge

After the first month, I’m happy to see that my score for the Cheapskate Reading Challenge is 20!

For anyone looking for an easy way to keep track of the points for the books you read, I’ve built a simple spreadsheet, available for anyone who would like to use it. All you need to do is:

  1. Hit ‘Make a Copy’ or you won’t be able to enter any data.
  2. Then just enter your book titles and select the category of each book from the dropdown menu.
  3. The spreadsheet will assign each book the proper amount of points and give you a running tally.

 

What I’m Reading Next

Lastly, I made my first use out of the most thoughtful and creative gift from the holiday season. My wife, whose creative endeavours never cease to surprise, made me a reading scratch ticket.

Each rectangle has a book title underneath. Leading up to the holidays, my wife talked to some of people that know a bit about what I might be planning on reading soon, and she even convinced me to re-arrange our bookshelf by ‘read’ and ‘unread’ in order to put to right kinds of books on the ticket. Book number one, Iron Gold! 

 

How was your January? How are you doing the Cheapskate Reading Challenge? And how is February looking for you?

 

Fun fact about this post: On a side note, look at how immaculately clean Iron Gold is without its dust jacket. There’s no way it’s going to be that clean by the time I’m done reading it. No way!

 

 

 

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First Impression Friday – Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Welcome to another First Impression Friday. In case this is your first time, here’s the rundown:

• Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions
and predict what you’ll think by the end.
• Did you think you’d love and ended up hating it? Or did you think
you’d hate it and wound up loving it? Or were you exactly right?
• Link back to Storeys of Stories so I can enjoy reading all the
First Impression Fridays out there!

 

A decadent rock star. A deeply religious radio host. A disgraced scientist. And a teenage girl who may be the world’s last hope.

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

For on their journey, they will discover an America convulsed with terror and violence, where this apocalyptic epidemic proves less dangerous than the fear of it. As the rest of society collapses all around them–and an ultraviolent militia threatens to exterminate them–the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart–or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

Let’s talk about Wanderers by Chuck Wendig.

So, I’ve got the audiobook version for this one. I already knew it was a big book, but I was still pretty surprised the first time I opened it up and saw it was 32+ hours! That’s easily double and triple of “normal” audiobooks. But don’t let that scare you away.

The first few chapters have been dynamite. Not a ton of action, but intrigue is everywhere. Each paragraph fills my mind with more questions that I can’t wait to get the answers to. My inner monologue on this one has basically been:

“What? Why is… ohhhhh. Awesome. Hey, wait. Who’s that? Why are they…? AWESOME!”

Definitely looking forward to more and more and more.

 

My Prediction: 4+ stars

Fun fact about this post: Chuck has been one of all-time favourite bloggers (terribleminds.com). In fact, I was reading his blog posts way before I read any of his books!
BooksReviews

Pivot by L.C. Barlow – Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

PIVOT
by L.C. Barlow

Self-Published
May 16, 2013

From Goodreads:

For some, the Devil introduces himself as an average man. For others, he crushes their souls and makes them bleed. For Jack Harper, the Devil renders himself a savior. But things are changing.

Once a loyal follower of Cyrus and an accomplished killer, Jack Harper now begins to question everything. There are new, strange forces at work that are intruding on Jack’s kills, abilities, and very being. Maybe, though, deep down Jack has been waiting for this intrusion, and maybe Cyrus is not as powerful as he seems.

The good people at NetGalley provided me with a digital ARC of Pivot in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I didn’t know what to expect with this one. The description was pretty vague, but the book pulls you right in showing you a young girl (who I thought was a boy for half of the book since they only ever call her Jack) being trained in the art of killing. Pretty cool, right?

Jack’s training is being conducted by a cultish leader, which sounds creepy, but picture that leader being charismatic and irrefutably likeable. Evil, sure, but you kind of like listening to him talk. Like Negan. 

So creepy cult happenings going on everywhere, and you think you know what’s going on and have a grasp of everything and the stakes. Then a supernatural angle is brought in. Powers. And everything changes again. 

Despite the constant shift, this isn’t a story full of twists and turns. I found myself surprised a few times, but there were no moments that shocked me. Twists were brought on slowly. At the beginning of the reveal, you don’t know anything, but before the reveal is done, you’ve figured it all out. Always interesting, but always a bit like slipping into a warm bath. 

I feel like the characters were a bit lacking. The main few were pretty good, but anyone else was flat and often single-serving. They didn’t seem to have a life, or even an existence, outside of what our main characters needed them for.

This book would be a good fit for fans of Supernatural or Constantine. It was definitely a fun read, though I’m not sure if I’d be in for a sequel unless I knew certain characters would make a return…

Fun fact about this post: This might be the latest I’ve ever been reviewing an ARC…
BooksReviews

Strange Exit by Parker Peevyhouse – Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

STRANGE EXIT
by Parker Peevyhouse

Tor Teen
January 14, 2020

From Goodreads:

Seventeen-year-old Lake spends her days searching a strange, post-apocalyptic landscape for people who have forgotten one very important thing: this isn’t reality. Everyone she meets is a passenger aboard a ship that’s been orbiting Earth since a nuclear event. The simulation that was supposed to prepare them all for life after the apocalypse has trapped their minds in a shared virtual reality and their bodies in stasis chambers.

No one can get off the ship until all of the passengers are out of the sim, and no one can get out of the sim unless they believe it’s a simulation. It’s up to Lake to help them remember.

When Lake reveals the truth to a fellow passenger, seventeen-year-old Taren, he joins her mission to find everyone, persuade them that they’ve forgotten reality, and wake them up. But time’s running out before the simulation completely deconstructs, and soon Taren’s deciding who’s worth saving and who must be sacrificed for the greater good. Now, Lake has no choice but to pit herself against Taren in a race to find the secret heart of the sim, where something waits that will either save them or destroy them all.

The good people at Tor Teen and NetGalley provided me with a digital ARC of Strange Exit in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This the second Parker Peevyhouse novel I’ve read and while I’m convinced she has an adoring audience, I don’t seem to fit in. 

I really like the premises she comes up with, but the novels never hit me the same way. I’m a very linear reader and I get the impression that Strange Exit would be enjoyed a lot more by non-linear readers who can follow the story no matter how many times it jumps off the track, does a 180, and backflips into something else.

Most of the time I was reading this book I just found myself confused. Confused where the story was going, and confused with why the characters did what they did. 

The resolution brought the experience up a little, just because I was able to make a bit of sense out of it, but overall this book just wasn’t up to my expectations.

I wanted to like this book, I really did, but unfortunately I just couldn’t.