lenoreo's reviews
2146 reviews

Phew...so glad this one was great. The last Presents book I read was not at ALL to my taste, and I was beginning to think I had outgrown Presents... This one was fabulous. Caroline was so innocent by fiesty, and Lucas was such a sweetheart underneath it all. I could actually believe the misunderstandings and fears they encountered, and could believe the HEA at the end. In fact, it left me smiling like a dope. :)

I'm not sure why I feel so meh about this book. Some of the writing just felt methodical and forced....the characters weren't bad, the plot was ok...it just felt like it was lacking something to make it that better book.....or maybe it's just me.

OMG! I just wrote a huge long review and my Firefox crashed...I think I might cry. Gah!

I won this book as part of a Good Reads giveaway -- I love my kindle, but it is nice to hold that beautiful hardcover in my hands sometimes.

OK, now to try to review it all over again and sound even half as witty. Unlikely. So....I ended up being conflicted over this book. It started off really well and I was sucked right in...but around the big reveal I started to realize that I just wasn't connecting with Violet. I don't know if it was me, or if I just wasn't given enough background to understand her reactions...but they just seemed extreme...and this is BEFORE the outside influences. So, you can imagine, by the end of it I just wasn't much of a Violet fan. I know that some of it was not her...but still, I just couldn't empathize with her angst I guess. I really liked Lincoln, and we didn't really get to see much of him, and I definitely didn't understand why he was all into her. I think I would have needed to see their past interactions to really buy it all. And then there's Phoenix. I have a love/hate relationship with him. He intrigued me, no doubt...I think there is much more to that story...but he also creeped me out. So in the end I think this book was just not for me. It didn't hit all *my* right buttons...in the end, it's probably more of a 2.5 stars for me, but it's a reluctant demotion. I guess I just wanted to like it more.

In another note, I loved the concepts in the mythos and found them nice and unique...but I was also left seriously confused a lot of the times. Now, this may be just me...I also had a hell of a time understanding the instructions for installing a pocket door frame this weekend, so perhaps my brain was lacking some special enzymes....*rolls eyes*

All in all good...Andre and Kate were different characters. Fairly typical romance (which isn't a bad thing). Might just not have been in the right mood for this at the time...

4.5 stars....this book had my heart in a vice. I spent a night bawling my eyes out, and this afternoon with my stomach roiling...it was just so hard to read. So many imperfect and real characters making just f-ed up choices... I go from reading a book that was really sappy and somewhat unrealistic (that I still loved, I'm ok with fairy tales) to a book where there is just so much....gah...I don't even know, but it was just crazy. My heart broke for every one of them. Sometimes Brenna is so hard to take b/c she's a *real* teenager who is kind of GAH! just like so many are in real life... You get used to reading these perfect heroines that are flawed, but only superficially somehow. I don't even know if I'm making any sense. I enjoyed the book and can't wait for the next one, but it also made me feel like crawling into a ball at times....

I really enjoyed being able to read from Brenna, Saxon *and* Jake's POV in this novel...but at the same time I found some timelines confusing. I guess I got used to the other novels where the passage of time was clearly marked, and kept expecting the different chapters to line up right after each other. Or at least be able to understand how interactions between the characters that happened in one POV translated in another POV...and this didn't *always* work. Loved the "trinity" at Trinity college....wish we could have had more Evan time. And the book ended on a weird note...will there be another? Or was it ending like real life -- in that it doesn't end...well, until death, but you know what I mean. I guess it just didn't quite live up to the other 2 for me. Would I still read the next one if there is one? You bet your ass!! ;)

The writing style wasn't always my favourite (just a personal preference) -- mostly at the beginning it was just lots of dialogue or something...I couldn't quite figure out what I didn't like, just that something wasn't jibing with me. But the characters were adorable. Shane and Trey...*sigh* I wasn't sure where all it would go, but it had romance, hardships to get over, and if I was capable of thought right now I'd remember all the other good things I wanted to say. I was also worried how the whole June part would play out, but it was fairly believable....

4.5 stars -- OK, based on my own personal preferences, I should not have liked this book. I am so not a fan of really descriptive writing (not sure why, just isn't me) -- and Cranberry Hush was mondo descriptive. I'm not a fan of flashbacks usually, find them confusing -- and Cranberry Hush is all about flashbacks. So when I say this book is really good, understand that I do that even in spite of the fact that it shouldn't be the book for me. There was just something about the descriptions that *fit* you know...like, in knowing Vince, it made sense to see and feel and hear from his perspective. It added elements to the book that I think most writers aim for but fail (hence why I usually don't like descriptiveness). And the flashbacks were done in such a way that they *fit* too. At first it caught me out, but once I figured out the pattern, it was really easy to follow and it didn't take me forever to figure out when we were in a flashback b/c it usually related to something happening in the present. Thus, it made sense to flashback...each piece just added more to the puzzle. And quite honestly, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Vince...he's hard to relate to, b/c sometimes you just want to smack him. But yet again, that didn't deter from the book, but kind of made the book what it was. He was flawed. He was a seriously unique character. I never really thought about the logistics of being Bi and how that could colour your world view at times. And everything resolved in just the right way where it was believable, and realistic, and he grew and changed in a way that was appropriate (not fast enough for me, but that's real life right??). So yeah, highly recommend this book.

2.5 stars -- and I think that has more to do with my inability to relate to the story. Not the gay bit...just the characters personalities were so far removed from what I experienced in childhood that it didn't jibe for me. Half the time I was left waiting for the real Tyler to emerge...but that's who Tyler was. I'm just an anti-attention seeker that I couldn't understand his thoughts and motivations (half the time I wondered if he was delusional, and then that made me wonder if I was missing something). I kept waiting for more dimensions...like him saying he should feel like a better friend, and I agreed with him (not that I didn't understand him wanting someone to care about him, but that shouldn't preclude him from being there for Jenny). Yeah. I don't know. Was it me? Was it the book? It just left me feeling cold and sad and unfulfilled in the end. It was upped to 2.5 from 2 b/c I would catch glimmers of more to Tyler, I guess I just wanted more. From all the characters. *shrugs*

OK, well this is probably more a personal thing. When I saw it on my Pixel of Ink newsletter, it sounded intriguing, but also outside what I normally read and enjoy. I decided to give it a go. But it just wasn't for me. Too graphic, and in some ways detailed...I'm a pretty sensitive person, and it was just too hard to read this. I was glad that Toffee was doing the right thing, but other than not wanting to do it anymore, he really didn't seem too remorseful about the raping and murdering. So yeah, just not for me.