Monday, March 21, 2016

Monday Reads: VICE, LONGBOURN, EVERYTHING BUT THE TRUTH, and NIMONA

Another full and great couple of reading weeks. 

VICE by Rosanna Leo. Rosanna is a fellow Samhain author and this is the first book I've read by her. I read VICE in two days because it was a page-turner. It had the perfect amount of tension and spot-on pacing. 
What I love most about it is that it's a story of addictions. Not only does Kate struggle with her father's gambling addiction, she latches on to Liam and creates an addiction of her own (while he gets addicted to her as well). It was a struggle to read how she tries to stop enabling her father but then just gets in deep with her own vice. There were times when Kate was telling herself to run from Liam and I really wanted her to do the same. While Liam has a tortured past, he felt more controlling and scary to me than like a sexy hero. Luckily, without giving away spoilers, both of them eventually get their act together, in a realistic way too- without it being too easy. I was very happy with both of their character arcs and how the book ended.
My favourite line: "They enabled each other. Their love was like a Vegas casino, bright and lively on the outside, but cloaked in darkness, heedless of time and responsibility." Not only is the imagery here perfect, but this line came at exactly the right time. I have to admit it was a bit too much on the erotic side for me- those aren't really my type of books, but I loved the story.


LONGBOURN by Jo Baker. This book is pitched as PRIDE & PREJUDICDE meets DOWNTON ABBEY, which, HELLO, yes please! It wasn't really like that though. The great thing about DA is the number of characters, both servants and the family, which really makes for all the intrigues and scandals. In LONGBOURN, there are only a handful of servants- obviously because the Bennet's aren't rich- but because of that, there wasn't intrigue I thought there'd be. I did enjoy the book though. The story went along with timeline of P&P but it was about the servant Sarah wanting her own life and love story. The book was full of details (though sometimes too many for my taste) and I loved the love story. Unfortunately, though the book was long, the climax felt rushed at the end. I gave the book four stars though because I was totally into it.

EVERYTHING BUT THE TRUTH was a cute and fun read by Mandy Hubbard. It's a mistaken identity kind of book which was fun, although it took the MC a loooong time to finally tell the love interest the truth. I get why, but this made the love interest seem a little dumb- like catch on already dude, this girl is shady! It was a fun and fast read though, and I loved the retirement home setting and the fact that the LI was a rich socialite.


NIMONA  by Noelle Stevenson. So aside from Archie, Garfield, and Calvin & Hobbes, I've never read comics, and never a graphic novel like NIMONA. I didn't know if I'd like it or not but I loved it. The story was excellent, I read it in pretty much one sitting, I loved the characters, it was funny, and the drawings were great. I loved the mash-up of science and magic, modern and medieval. Graphic novels probably aren't my favorite type of book, but I loved every bit of this one and I'm so glad I picked it up. My son is now reading it, and my daughter wants it after him. For a graphic novel first-timer, I think this was a good one to start with.  


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