lynseyisreading's reviews
1361 reviews

This book sounded right up my street from the description. I also thought the title was killer. Unfortunately, it was incredibly boring and I really struggled to finish it.

The setting was interesting, I guess; Irish language summer school. But the plot was nothing more than characters pottering about having mindless conversations while you were waiting for one of them to hurry up and die already - which didn't actually happen for the longest time!

And speaking of the characters, they were little more than vague outlines; each one's voice sounding exactly like any of the others. Since we didn't have a main character to bond with it was vital we had a diverse bunch of interesting characters in the ensemble, but this couldn't have been further from the truth.

There was a vague attempt at foreshadowing but it was so brief and so subtle you'd blink and miss it. It was not nearly enough - where were our breadcrumbs to follow?

I don't want to keep harping on but, basically, this book needs major work. I can see it's already garnered a very low average score on Goodreads and I can see why. It's simply not ready for public consumption yet. It has zero suspense, zero thrills, 2D characters and hardly any plot. It reads like a bad first draft.

1 star ★
ARC received in exchange for an honest review.
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DNF for now...

I think I may have made an error when picking up this book. As a general rule, I will always read a book series in order, but sometimes, when it's a romance series, I break my own rule because I figure there might be a few things I don't understand, but essentially there will be a hero, a heroine, a beginning, a middle and a happily ever after so I should be absolutely fine.

Not so with this one! I'm trudging through it now at about 35% and I am confused and bored. An entire football team of previous characters have wandered though, I have no idea who any of them are or what they are talking about.

Add to that the fact that the H and h jump into bed after only exchanging 10 words...I'm done. Sorry.

And it's a shame because I think this is a world I would enjoy in normal circumstances, hence the 3 stars even though I can't finish it.

Ah, what a shame, what a shame... Such a beautiful title and cover, such an interesting-sounding premise but ultimately a very forgettable and disappointing book.

I really had high hopes for this, I find the topic of cults quite fascinating and frighteningly, they're an even more relevant topic these days than they really ought to be in 2022, but this book did nothing to explore the topic.

This was not so much about a girl brought up sheltered and unaware in a terrible cult, not realising just how strange or strict her way of life was until an outsider showed up - which is what I thought and what would have been more interesting to read - as it was about a girl brought up fully aware of the weirdness of her living situation and of the real world, who's a bit bored. I feel missold.

Nixie was not particularly likeable. I struggled to find any reason Crew would have been so enamoured with her. Her characterisation was puddle-deep and she made erratic swings, particularly near the end. The ending was just bad, bad, bad. I was rolling my eyes hard by that point.

I think this book's main problem was how surface-level everything felt. Shallow characters, slim to no plot and nothing of interest explored.

So yep, this was not very good and I don't recommend it.

2 stars ★★
ARC reviewed in exchange for an honest review

FAIR GAME, which is book three in the Alpha and Omega series, a spin-off of the Mercedes Thompson series, takes place a little over a year after the last book. When we were last with Charles and Anna, Anna was just beginning to overcome the abuse she'd suffered at the hands of her first pack. A pack that had turned her brutally and deliberately knowing she would become an Omega wolf, in an attempt to cure their Alpha's crazy mate. Her treatment at their hands had left her a frightened rabbit. But with Charles' gentle but fierce support, she'd managed to make major progress on the road to recovery.

Cut to a year later and it's now Charles that's needing support. His job as the Marrocks enforcer has taken on new meaning after the werewolves announced themselves to the public. Harsher punishments are being issued and it's affecting Charles. Something Anna is only too happy to point out to the Marrock, aka, her father-in-law, Bran. Bran decides a change of scenery is in order and so sends them both off to Boston to deal with a problematic case working alongside the FBI, hoping this will give Charles and Anna the time they need to sort themselves out, and also as a good PR spinner.

Sounds like a plan to me.

I admit I was kind of saddened to see that Charles and Anna's mate bond was in jeopardy once again after the progress they made in the last book. They are so well suited to each other and such a sweet couple that I don't like to see them going backwards and regressing. But the mix of these relationship issues and the developing mystery/police procedural plot, made for good reading nonetheless. Even if some of the subject matter of the case was disturbing.

The pacing for the first three quarters of the book wasn't the fastest I've seen from Briggs, but the last quarter? Whoo hoo! That was some ending, I absolutely loved it!

I can't help noticing a few changes to the Mercy Thompson world that may effect the next Mercy book. I can't wait to see where Briggs is going with that idea.

4 Stars! ★★★★