Disappointed 2016

Hello Book-Sniffers and Librocubicularists,

What. A. Year.

Mostly, my life wasn't a big ball of flaming turd. Some of my reads were. Awards created special for each book. Check these out…

This got published?!

Reading like a pulpy 1950's book, 'The Seventh Miss Hatfield" by Anna Caltabiano dumbfounds me. The premise is cool. There's so much potential for this to be more. Instead, it reads like a first draft… maybe a second draft if I'm kind. No character development, little to no story, unbelievable situations, and terrible time travel.
Redeems itself?: the cover. It's awesome.


Consistency. What's that?

Flailing all over the place, "The Search for WondLa" by Tony DiTerlizzi is one of the biggest disappointments. Characters do not stay true to form. Many of them will go into cliche territory when
it's uncalled for in their nature. It was like the author said "I want this to happen" and picked a character at random to do it. No thought into if the character would actually do it to begin with. Great in idea, terrible in execution. Blech.
Redeems itself?: The illustrations are nice.


The Most Unrelateable

Turns out, it's really hard to have high stakes for gods. They just do whatever they want. In "Kojiki" by Keith Yatsuhashi, he tries his darnedest to make me care about entitled gods. He even throws in a mortal. It ended up being a soap opera with whining that could've been solved if they actually talked to each other and LISTENED!
Redeems itself?: Gorgeous cover. It subtly wraps around to the back.

Sci-Fi Pulp-iest

"Corpus Earthling" by Louis Charbonneau. Used bookstore find, hilarious
cover, weird title, and surprisingly boring and gave me the heebie-jeebies. Our main character is a professor who definitely abuses his privilege. He's so horny. Poor him. Go for a girl your own age instead of stalking your students. YUK. Not to mention a 150-page build to a 3-page climax where there's some alien creature that attacks him and … I don't even care anymore.
Redeems itself?: An awesome first chapter.

Biggest Disappointment

After finding my most favourite dragon book ever, I lept at the chance to read book two, "The Lesser Kindred" by Elizabeth Kerner. A sharp turn toward the fluff, I disliked a lot about this instalment. The main character and her new husband love each other, a lot, many times a day, and what? What is this? I am pregnant (reveal at the end because she's suddenly incredibly stupid). The first book, she rocked - explored, was curious, pushed boundaries, did whatever she wanted. This book had her become Susie-homemaker, in the background, on a forever-quest to find… something, I don't even recall now. I will finish this series and hold out hope that it wraps up nicely.
Redeems itself?: Dragons?

ANGRY. THIS ONE MADE ME ANGRY. 

Beautiful cover. Sold me on the idea that a woman ruled a land and led her people to freedom from tyranny. "Irenicon" by Aidan Harte, boasts a cool world, a sentient river (yes SENTIENT!!!), and a kick-ass woman.

OMG THE ANGER. Not even 20% of the way through this I realized there were few female characters and they were all plot devices. The main character (told, we were), bold and powerful woman, was barely there and was governed by ALL THE MEN in her life. Really, the only reason she's a woman (I've surmised) is so that she can negotiate treatises with marriage (because woman) AND fall in love with the ACTUAL main character, an engineer who is so smart he is so smart.

Sure, she kicks all the asses. But I've never read a woman, said to be a woman, portrayed in such a mannish manner. I love, LOVE women warrior novels. They are allowed to be soft, have emotions, think womanly things, have aspects generally associated as masculine, and still kick-ass. I hated this book.

The nun, trained our "main character" because reasons. Then she dies because, of course, one's teacher must die (says the cliched hero's arc).

Any other women mentioned. You guessed it. They die.

I angry read this one to finish it. Hated every moment. 100% would not recommend.
Redeems itself?: Nope.
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I need a drink...

~ Cheers to better reading in 2017!~