I read a few duds this summer. I guess they all can't be winners.
Title: Women in Sunlight
Author: Frances Mayes
Genre: Adult | Fiction
Rating: 1 star
This was a book club read and oh my god, I was not the target audience for it. Women in Sunlight followed three white women in their 60s who were at a turning point in their lives. They were being urged to join a senior citizen community and weren't ready for that step in life, instead they dropped everything and moved to a villa in Italy. Everyone in this book was the worst. Life was fairly easy for them in Italy, they had money, and when they ran out of money, they found jobs quite easily as well as new romantic interests. Kit, who was an American and lived next door, was a writer and decided to make their lives her next novel. Kit's writing (as well as the book's) was over the top and pretentious. The way the characters spoke to each other was no believable and there was never a climax to this novel. I cannot recommend this to anyone. Nope.
Title: Most Likely to Succeed (Superlatives #3)
Author: Jennifer Echols
Genre: Young Adult | Contemporary | Romance
Rating: 2 stars
Full disclaimer, I have not read the first two books; I picked this one up because the cover was cute. If I read the first two books, I may have enjoyed this one a bit more, but then again, we know my track record with YA contemporaries. I didn't like Most Likely to Succeed because it was missing a whole lot of character development. I'm under the impression that the first books teased Sawyer and Kaye's attraction to each other because I just didn't get it by reading this book as a standalone. I was also expecting more character development from Sawyer who clearly had a rough childhood, but we just got a few peeks at this home life. Overall, I felt very 'meh' about this book and don't have a desire to read the other books in this series.
Title: A Blade So Black
Author: L.L. McKinney
Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy
Rating: 1 star
Boy oh boy, this book was a mess. A Blade So Black took no time to develop the world or characters. The book opens with the prologue, Alice's father just passed and she has run away in her grief. A Nightmare was attracted to her grief and she found herself fighting a monster from another world. Enter Hatta who gave her the cliff notes and asked if she wanted to join him in fighting Nightmares. Alice enthusiastically said yes and we jump to one year later. Excuse me, that's not enough detail, I need to learn more. Besides that, I find it hard to believe that this book was written for 2018 teens. There were references to Sailor Moon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and slang should have stayed in the 90s. I assumed that grief would have been a major topic in this book since Nightmares were attracted to grief and Alice was still processing her father's death, but there was no time dedicated to Alice's emotional development. This book was not good.
Have you read any of the books I reviewed?
Do you agree/disagree with my ratings?
What have been some reent duds you've read?
Labels: 1 star, 2 stars, a blade so black, book review, frances mayes, jennifer echols, l.l.mckinney, les petites revues, most likely to succeed, women in sunlight
