Sunday 18 May 2014

Review: Broken #1

Broken: Broken #1
Synopsis

Caleb is perfect in every way, almost too perfect and Gwen has never felt so happy. He is hers and she is his. Life can't get much better and their love can't get any stronger. That is until mistakes are made and their world comes crumbling down. 

She's left alone with no money, no home and a growing person invading her stomach. How will she survive? 

Forced to leave culinary school, the job she needs and the home they made together. 

Gwen finds a knight in the most unlikely source. Caleb's brother Nathan. A complex man with a phobia she doesn't understand and mannerisms that aren't of this day and age, will she be able to melt his seemingly frozen heart and become his friend? Or will he forever push her away and wallow in his loneliness and self loathing? 


Review
Broken didn't have a great start. The beginning was a bit of a mish mash, a girl meets a boy on a beach and falls deliberately in loves, how gullible is she and how gullible does the author think we are that we would believe such nonsense? The beginning of this story would be a good story for a fifteen year old, its very unrealistically romantic, if not headache inducing. I was livid with the author for such a bad start.

However as the story progressed, I began to understand the characters. This author is good at characterization, in Lil Bits of Us, I loved Mia not because she was perfectly formed but because she was flawed, she was a young woman coming to terms with the death of the father and coming to terms with growing up. However in Broken Gwen is sappy, very weak and to a certain extent stupid. Towards the end I began to sympathize with her. Yes she needs to stand up for herself but I'm hoping she does this in the second book.

This isn't a story that rings true, it sounded as though the author thought about how great it would be to meet someone on the beach and she went for it. But Gwen and Caleb are not the kind of people I would have a drink with, they characters in a book and don't translate to real life. But I still think this author has potential,  the story is captivating enough, funny and there are elements of brilliance and I was entertained but I think the author needs to go back to the drawing board. Sort out the dialogue for example and create characters as great as Mia.

Question: Does anyone know an English Caleb, the name is very American. Sigh!

Ps. I was sent this book by the author. 

Tuesday 6 May 2014

How To Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia
Synopsis

The astonishing and riveting tale of a man's journey from impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon, it steals its shape from the business self-help books devoured by youths all over 'rising Asia'. 

It follows its nameless hero to the sprawling metropolis where he begins to amass an empire built on the most fluid and increasingly scarce of goods: water. 


Yet his heart remains set on something else, on the pretty girl whose star rises alongside his, their paths crossing and re-crossing in a love affair sparked and snuffed out again by the forces that careen their fates along.


Friday 2 May 2014

Can Anybody Help Me?

Can Anybody Help Me?
Synopsis

It was crazy really, she had never met the woman, had no idea of her real name but she thought of her as a friend. Or, at least, the closest thing she had to a friend in Dublin. 

Struggling with a new baby, Yvonne turns to netmammy, an online forum for mothers, for support. Drawn into a world of new friends, she spends increasing amounts of time online and volunteers more and more information about herself.

When one of her new friends goes offline, Yvonne thinks something is wrong, but dismisses her fears. After all, does she really know this woman?

But when the body of a young woman with striking similarities to Yvonne's missing friend is found, Yvonne realises that they're all in terrifying danger. Can she persuade Sergeant Claire Boyle, herself about to go on maternity leave, to take her fears seriously?

The Girl Who Was Saturday Night

The Girl Who Was Saturday Night
Synopsis

At birth, Nouschka forms a bond with her twin that can never be broken. 

At six, she's the child star daughter of Quebec's most famous musician. 

At sixteen, she's a high-school dropout kicking up with her beloved brother. 

At nineteen, she's the Beauty Queen of Boulevard Saint-Laurent. 

At twenty, she's back in night school. And falling for an ex-convict. 

And it's all being filmed by a documentary crew.