As you may have noticed, reviews have been scarce at Monkey Bear Reviews of late. There’s a reason for this. The last three books I read were ones I either could not get into or actively disliked. Instead of prolonging my torture by devoting three normal-length reviews to these books, I’ve decided to go the lazy route and feature them in mini reviews.
The first book on my (s)hit list did not suck as such, but I couldn’t engage with it.
Brief Synopsis: The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber is billed as Historical Fantasy. Eighteen-year-old Miss Percy Parker arrives at the Athens Academy to finish her education. She is an oddity in both appearance and ability, and is quite self-conscious in consequence. Percy is albino which inevitably draws stares. To ensure that people stare even more, she tries to disguise herself by wearing a turban and lavendar glasses. (This made absolutely no sense to me, but whatever.) In addition to being albino, Percy can see and hear ghosts. She has never revealed this ability to anyone for fear of being considered insane. The Athens Academy is also not quite what it seems. It is run by the mysterious Professor Alexi Rychman. Together with five friends, Alexi is part of a select circle with supernatural powers. Their task is to prepare for the war against evil and to await the arrival of a seventh helper.
My Verdict: The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker is not really a bad book and I’m sure it would appeal to many readers. Unfortunately, it failed to engage my attention and I gave up halfway through. While I’m not a fan of too much info dump, I felt as if I’d been thrown into the story with no adequate background knowledge. Much is assumed, little is explained. The circle of six all have distinct personalities – or so I assume – but beyond the odd one-liner, we’re not given a true glimpse of their characters. We learn a little more about Alexi and Percy, but not enough to make me want to spend a whole book in their company. Although Alexi has potential, Percy seemed cold and uninteresting. If I don’t care about the characters, the book is a lost cause. I also got the impression that Alexi and Percy were gearing up for a romance. The age difference bothered me (he is 36 to her 18) but the teacher-student relationship disturbed me even more. Grade: DNF
The second book on my list was one which I finished, but it is not one I can recommend.
Speed Dating by Nancy Warren is part of the Harlequin NASCAR series. I downloaded it for free from the Harlequin website. Given how bad the book sucked, I was glad I hadn’t paid money for it.
Brief Synopsis: Actuary Kendall Clarke gets dumped by her cheating fiance right before an important ceremony at which she is due to receive an award. Dylan Hargreave is a NASCAR driver in need of a date to his ex-wife’s wedding. Kendall humiliates herself in front of her colleagues with a tell-all speech in which she reveals her fiance cheated on her and impregnated another co-worker. Needless to say, she’s demoted and given a forcible stress leave. For some odd reason, Kendall fails to realize she acted unprofessionally. Dylan needs a fake girlfriend to stop him kissing his newly-married ex-wife. Only it doesn’t. Somehow, the ex-wife and her doormat new husband decide they are actually in love. After about five minutes of soul-searching, Kendall and Dylan decide they are, too, and they all live happily ever after.
My Verdict: This book was the worst I’ve read so far this year. It wasn’t even bad in a Susan Mallery sort of way whereby I could at least laugh at its ridiculousness. Apart from having a beginning, a middle and an end, this book has no redeeming features. Grade: F
The last book on the list is J.R. Ward’s Covet. After five days, I’m only on page 203 and I’ve started skimming. I’m not quite prepared to label it a DNF just yet, so I’ll put it aside with the intention of trying it again at another time. At the moment, it’s boring me and I want to devote my limited reading time to a book I might actually enjoy.
Brief Synopsis: Following a fatal accident at work, carpenter Jim Heron is sent back to earth with a mission: to save his boss’s soul. Vin di Pietro is a self-made man. He’s described as ruthlessly ambitious and has no problem with being on the shady side of the law. He lives with his beautiful fiancee, Devina, but is fighting his attraction for the prostitute Marie-Terese. Marie-Terese is also attracted to Vin but she is busy trying to pay off her debts and protect herself and her son from her evil ex-husband.
My Verdict: Jim is a good character. I could have done without his Harley-riding sidekicks, but I had no basic objection to Jim. Vin’s actions and Ward’s description of his character seemed at odds. She tells us he’s ruthless, yet I haven’t seen evidence of that up to the point I stopped reading. He seems cold but basically a good guy. The character I had the most problems with was Marie-Terese. Her portrayal was so very different from that in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. In those books, she was described as the head ho in Rhev’s club, ZeroSum. In Covet, she’s metamorphosed into a typical J.R. Ward doormat heroine. She’s a reluctant prostitute and seems to be pretty low on the totem pole in the club in which she now works. The part which defied all logic was when her boss, Trez, offered her the money to clear her debts and she refused because she was too proud to accept help. WTF? She’ll sleep with men for money, even though she despises herself for it, but is too proud to accept help from a friend? I think I need to move on to another book. Grade: TBF/DNF
{ 10 comments }
I’ve only read the first one, and I know what you mean. It’s not a bad book, rather hypnotic in a lyrical way, but I just couldn’t get into it. Took me forever to read. Different strokes and all.
I finished covet! I tokk me a whole week and I agree it’s just bah. The end was ok but the book was so not what I wanted it to be. *sad*
Haven’t read the other ones.
@Stacy ~ Whew! I thought I was going to be the only person underwhelmed by Miss Percy. Although if I recall correctly, Maili also put it aside.
@SusiSunshine Yeah, Covet was a disappointment. Ward’s books are frequently patchy but I’ve always found enough good stuff in the BDB books to keep me turning the pages. That wasn’t the case here.
The Miss Percy book does not appeal to me so it didn’t make the cut when I was buying books recently.
Covet is on the TBR pile and patiently waiting for when I get the urge to read it.
The Nancy Warren I have read. It was the first ebook I read on my new iPhone to try out reading on it and I agree with you.
I am planning lots of mini reviews on the made over blog (when it is finally done, which is taking some time) and don’t think it’s being lazy. It’s a great way to deal with these types of DNF books or books you just don’t have a lot to say about.
I’ve been hearing such mixed reviews about Covet. I am not thrilled how Ward set this book in the same world as her BDB series. I really thought it would a different world and setting.
Wow The Phade must be one crowded place with all these people running around.
Aw, I thought you would enjoy Percy Parker. I can see where the age gap can give be a turn off for some people. I found Leanna’s writing to be beautiful and for some reason Percy didn’t bother me so much. I kept cracking up every time she swooned though.
Awww, you didn’t like TSBTOMPP.
I haz sad.
Actually, I know what you mean about the teacher/student relationship–that did kind of squick me out at first, especially as a teacher (and as a former student who used to have a crush on a teacher… *cough*). But there does come a point in the book where their relationship changes so that it feels more equal. But still, like I mentioned in my review, there’s never any doubt Percy is completely dependent upon Alexi.
I really enjoyed Ms. Percy’s book, I loved Ms. Hieber’s writing style.
Wow, Covet is really getting the knock down around the book blogs. I finally got it in the mail yesterday. Kinda worried about reading it, I so do not want to be disappointed.
@Pearl I think the mini reviews were definitely the way to go. I’ve since moved on to the joys of Meljean Brook! Actually, mini reviews make perfect sense for a short book, such as a category romance.
@katiebabs I can see how Miss Percy would appeal to other readers but it just didn’t do it for me. Yes, I agree that
@heidenkind If I understood correctly, Miss Percy is the start of a series. Maybe the dependence thing will become less of an issue later on?
@Donna (Fantasy Dreamer) I think it would have been better had Covet been set in an entirely different world to the BDB series. I’m still on board for Lover Mine, though!
I haven’t read the first book, looked at my review for Speed Dating and I gave it a D so think I am in line with you there and still haven’t made my way back to Covet. Such a meh read.
I want to kick it because I wanted Marie-Terese’s book. And you are right ‘she’ isn’t there, it is a pod person. And I am sorry that isn’t a ‘romance’ novel. The publisher was right with labeling it a novel. So it didn’t help I kept hearing this was Ward’s return to romance. BAH Yes there is a ‘romance’ in the novel but this isn’t at all a romance novel or even a paranormal romance.
It is an Urban Fantasy more than a ‘novel’ ::pout::. So all in all it was lazy. Why bother having another series if you are going to keep it in the same ‘world’ with the same already out of date slang.
le sigh I will finish it at some point, maybe but I do want to read John/Xhex book. I think…
@Sybil The general consensus on Covet seems to be “meh”. Ward should have made Marie-Terese the strong, unapologetic prostitute that I expected her to be from the glimpses we saw of her in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. She seemed like a completely different character to her BDB portrayal.