Peacock Flock Review #25 - March

March 

Author: Sunni Overend

Length: ~ 300 pages

Genre: Romance

Heat level: Moderate - for details highlight between parentheses

(Some explicit terms in foreplay, but jumps over the full 'scenes') 

Stars: 3 Enjoyable Purple Stars 

Book Summary:

A creative wunderkind who once topped the country's most prestigious fashion school, Apple March is now languishing behind a retail counter. When fate shifts and her imaginative passion is reawakened, so too is the threat of a past secret.From the cool heart of Melbourne to Paris and New York, in a vibrant world of Pimms and croquet, crocodile boots and cocoon coats, Apple seeks the thrill of creative freedom and the one man worth sharing it with.A page-turning debut novel written with fun, stylish wit, March is too satisfying to miss.

Review:

We liked this. Most of the characters had distinctive traits and we thought the descriptions of everything fashion and designer were done well. However. That's about all we have for positives. There were a fair few typos and some larger ones where the sentence had to be reread a few times to understand. The main character Apple had little direction and although this did give her character some room to grow it made for a very lagging beginning. Plus Charlie and his whole family were in desperate need of some flaws. Everything about them was too perfect. Too picturesque. And did Apple come from money or not? It wasn't really clear and if she was more middle class why on earth wasn't there more reaction to the obscene amount of opulence experienced by Charlie and his family? Going to a croquet tournament and having a private area with rugs and your own personal waiter serving champagne? Yeah Apple took all the richness too much in stride for me. And the plot was just so-so. Not a lot of unexpected or unpredictable. We wanted more from it. This book hovered dangerously between 3 stars and 2.5 stars, but it was a cute (albeit very transparent) ending, so we put it into the 3 star bracket.

This review would've been 3.5 stars but we had to take .5 star off for language. There were 40+ f bombs. That is way too much swearing. And that's just the f words. We didn't even count other swears. We specifically state in the review policy that we don't like excessive language. Maybe it's different in Australia where much of the book takes place, but anything more than 5 f words and we just do not like it. We'd prefer there to be none at all. This was just time after time. From an authors stand point as well this was too much repetition. Even if it's common in Australia for f bombs to be dropped that often (which we honestly don't know) the characters began to sound all the same. And it begs the question whether or not these characters have any depth to them as they're using the same words and expressions. 

So it's a light read with okay characters. But only pick it up if you can handle a lot of language. 

That's it from the flock! 

Peacock Flock Review #24 - Wings

Wings 

Author: Aprilynne Pike

Length: ~ 290 pages

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Heat level: Clean  

Stars: 3 Enjoyable Purple Stars 

Book Summary:

Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.

Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.

In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.

Review:

We enjoyed this book and read it really quickly. However we read this for the story and the world, not the characters or the depth. Most of the characters had a serious lack of flaws and there was very little conflict in the story besides a couple outside influences about 3/4 into it and the all too stereotypical choice between two guys. The concept was amazing and we loved all the scenes between Tamani and Laurel plus we liked some of the details about the world building. (Like the hair/eye colour change of the faeries) But the whole faerie world created really could've been fleshed out better. That entire King Arthur aspect should've been left out and substituted for more details about the people and the culture. This book was also quite slow. Not a lot happening. Especially in the beginning. 30 pages in and very little had happened. We wished Tamani had been introduced sooner. And we had a problem with the lack of depth in the characters. Very few if any flaws. And hardly any substantive conflict at all. We wanted more mistakes. More tension. More doing the wrong thing. But that said we did read it in two days and will be reading the next book in the series. Make of that what you will. It was a good read. 

That's it from the flock! 

Peacock Flock Review #23 - The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back

The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back 

Author: Sariah Wilson

Length: ~ 224 pages

Genre: Romance

Heat level: Clean  

Stars: 3 Enjoyable Purple Stars 

Book Summary:

Everyone knows how all those fairy tales go. The princess gets beautiful, nabs her prince, falls instantly in love, lives happily ever after and leaves her evil stepsisters in the dust.

But what happens when you’re the ugly stepsister and your obnoxiously perfect—read pretty, smart, and, worst of all, sickeningly nice—stepsister is dating the charming, tall, devastatingly handsome guy you’ve had a thing for since you were nine years old? Quirky, artistic and snarky Mattie Lowe does not lead a charmed life. Her mother is constantly belittling her on Skype. Mercedes, the school mean girl, has made it her personal mission to torment Mattie. But worst of all? Her stepsister Ella is the most beautiful, popular girl in school and is dating Mattie’s secret longtime crush, Jake Kingston. Tired of being left out and done with waiting for her own stupid fairy godmother to show up, Mattie decides to change her life. She’ll start by running for senior class president against wildly popular Jake. Ella can keep her Prince Annoying. Mattie’s going to rule the school. And no one, not even a cute and suddenly flirty Jake, is going to stop her.

Review:

We thought this was a good cozy up book. Albeit quite stereotypical, and nothing too particularly different from other chick flick type books of its kind. Mattie was a likable character most of the time and the dance scene at the end of the book was fun and with a little bit of a surprise too. However there was a significant amount of telling the reader exactly how the characters felt or using dialogue to give the reader information which felt off and not like a real scene. We liked some of Mattie's decisions and Jake's too, we also really liked the cultural references, especially the fact the Mattie likes John Hughes so much. The other thing that stood out as a little too run of the mill was how often cliched and common phrases were used to express feelings and emotions. Eg: ___ hit me like a tidal wave - etc. We wanted there to be more conflict within the plot that didn't feel contrived, as Mattie's continued stubbornness felt a little like conflict for the sake of conflict (instead of something the character would actually do.) But all in all a good book to read when you want something light and fun.

That's it from the flock! 

 

Peacock Flock Book Review #5 - Belle

Peacock Flock Book Review #5

Belle

Author: Cameron Dokey

Length: ~ 204 pages

Genre: Fantasy (Fairy-tale retelling) 

Heat level: Clean

Stars:  3 Enjoyable Purple Stars 

Book Summary:

Belle is convinced she has the wrong name, as she lacks her sisters' awe-inspiring beauty. So she withdraws from society, devoting her time to wood carving. Secretly, Belle longs to find the fabled Heartwood Tree. If carved by the right hands, the Heartwood will reveal the face of one's true love.

During a fierce storm, Belle's father stumbles upon the mysterious Heartwood -- and encounters a terrifying and lonely Beast. Now Belle must carve the Heartwood to save her father, and learn to see not with the eyes of her mind, but with the eyes of her heart.

Review:

A retelling of Beauty and the Beast. We couldn't put this book down, after page 122. The first page the Beast is actually mentioned. Everything before this page was back story. Belle's childhood and her sisters. Don't get us wrong, all of this was interesting and we liked it, but it either needed to be cut back a lot or the book needed to be 100 pages longer. All the wonderful parts about her childhood, and how Belle feels she never really lived up to her name, made for a great story and made us care about Belle all the more, but there was no time or room to get to know or care about the Beast. This book needed so much more romance and so much more time with them in the castle. The actual romance felt rushed and there was no in-between. She went from being at the castle and just kind of there and (seemingly) to be building a relationship, to declaring that she loved the Beast in a matter of paragraphs. The few scenes with Belle and the Beast we did enjoy, but that's just the point. There were too few romantic moments. If we'd ever like to read a romance in 70 pages we'll pick this up again. So pretty much very rarely, possibly never. Maybe once before it goes back to the library.

That's it from the flock!

Peacock Flock Book Review #3 - Chip

** I promise I'll get better at getting these reviews out on time... my son's been waking up lots (hmm future blog post?) Anyways... Here it is! Finally!

Peacock Flock Book Review #3

Chip

Author: Aviva Bel'Harold

Length: ~ 531 pages

Genre: Science Fiction 

Heat level: Clean

Stars:  3 Enjoyable Purple Stars 


Book Summary:

The year is 2047.
Things have changed, with hover cars and touch contracts. Yet, many things remain the same.
Tia is just one teen trying to be normal, but with enhanced eyesight and an uncanny ability to know the future, Tia is not your average 17-year-old.
Neither is Teig.
Genetically altered to look 17, he is being sent from one school to the next in search of the perfect recruits for the company that changed him.
Discovering Tia creates a dilemma for Teig…
Either he will report her to the company; and she will be destroyed, 
Or he doesn’t, and could be.

What should he choose?
And what of Tia’s premonitions?
Even if she can see her future can she change it?

Review:

This book could have easily had more stars. We LOVED the characters and the very intense world that was created. Set in 2047 Tia and Teig, the two main characters, live in our future society where you must have a contract to touch members of the opposite sex. As crazy as that sounds it makes for some very interesting play which we really liked. This book was different and unique in that every few chapters you changed point of view from either Tia's head to Teig's. You also went back through the same scene (with more and other smaller bits added) from the new perspective. Ie. We read one scene of them driving in the car from Tia's point of view and thoughts and then the next chapter was from Tieg's point of view for the same scene and then continued on. This made it a lot easier to get to know and enjoy these characters. The world created and the characters were excellent. 

What this book needed? More of a plot (story) arc and to be more concise. It took a lot of words to get to the end, and it felt like there was a lot of intermediary things that didn't exactly need to be in there. The entire book felt like rising action, it needed a bigger climax (don't get us wrong the rising action was good it just need to go beyond that). We really were caught off guard by the ending. The plot just simply ended. There was no resolution, no feel like this was how things ended up. We will definitely read the second one (we know there are more planned) but it felt like this book should've ended differently and we felt gypped as readers. All in all a good read, wanted more though from this book on its own though.

That's it from the flock!