Thursday 9 May 2013

The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy



The World's Wife


Rating: 5*

Fantastic! A taste of the classic Duffy feministic approach to historical, mythical and biblical worldly female figures. My favourite piece was Queen Herod, it portrayed contradistinctive elements of love such as lesbian and maternal which was interesting. Love these poems.

Captive In The Dark (The Dark Duet, #1) by C.J Roberts


Rating: 5*


Shit shit shit. Does it make me a terrible person for enjoying (more than enjoying) this great feast of such dark subject matter? I hope not cause I really couldn't put this down at all. There is no cliche fluffy light fairytale feel-good YA love story elements at all. Full stop. It's brutal and it's raw and certainly not one for the faint hearted.

On the contrary, I completely admire the author's bravery on writing such a risky piece. It takes some skill to engineer a sickening yet enjoyable and completely addictive story that doesn't offend people against humanity (or lack thereof) because the truth is 'es la verdad'. Shit happens. This is honest, okay? I'll stop waffling now. :)

Crow's Row (Crow's Row #1) by Julie Hockley


Rating: 3*

I'm not really psyched by this book if I'm honest. I really don't like the protagonist and other main characters. I stopped reading it for a long time when I had 10% to go before finishing it because I wasn't interested in following on from where I left off. 

I really don't like Emily. She reacts to certain situations very childishly that I cringe when reading them. She is bratty, naive and immature despite everything she's been/going through.

Also, what the hell is up with the 'love' in this book? I don't comprehend. To me, this is not 'true love' like the character stresses. Her naivety and Cameron's lack of character development leads me to think that the only thing they've got going on between them is perverse infatuation; nothing special. 

I usually love a good book that relates to mobsters/drug lords/ mafia's/Criminal Organizations (whatever you want to call them) and Stockholm Syndrome, and while the aspects of secrecy within these topics were realistically and accurately portrayed, I really wasn't taken by the characters themselves. Maybe I have strong taste in character portrayals but I can't help but disdain the blandness.

April and Oliver by Tess Callahan


Rating: 5*

This book is fantastic, I don't understand how the overall rating isn't higher than what it is. It definitely stands out among all of the other books I've read this year. It was so refreshing, cathartic and purgative to read and the ending left me with the highest hopes ever. I also felt very strongly about the characters and certain subjects in the book, particularly the physical abuse which I could identify with. The characters in this book are the type that stay with you and the story was realistically written so much so that it seems like a personal memory of people I know rather than it just being a fiction novel. This summary is a mess so I'm definitely gonna take some of my working time up this week to write a full on review (vent my frustrations, admiration's with the authors writing; that kinda thing). I just need to get more people to read this book; it's good! ;)

Forgot to say, the writing it beee-yoooo-tiiii-fulll! I also learnt a lot of new words which my kindle wiki came in handy for.

Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding #1) by K.A Linde

Rating: 3.5*


Okay, this book just made me hate the whole male population. Yup. I hate men now. Even more so than I previously did at least.

I don't know how I have only just discovered this book. I came across it by accident but am so glad I did as it was to me, a mixture of two of my favourite books 'The Opportunist' by Tarryn Fisher and 'April and Oliver' by Tess Callahan.




I loved it because I always crave a bit of over the top angst and drama. There were so many unexpectedly heated passionate moments, so hot that I felt my brain boil over once or twice. And God I was so frustrated reading this over just about everything. I admire how the characters were emotionally driven and acted impulsively, which was realistic to human nature, instead of those oh so virtuous perfect human being type characters that many authors have repeatedly written in their stories. People just don't hold back like that in real life, which made the characters in this story believable and the plot more exciting. Human beings are selfish, destructive creatures. 

I usually always root for flawed characters such as Jack hoping that they are redeemable but I seriously just lost patience with him and gave up on that son of a bitch. Ughh. I liked him so much at the start and now hate him so much, which I certainly did not think would happen. I also hate Ramsey. I tried to like him and forgive him for what he'd done but even from the start he just proved to be a non-endearing nuisance. I don't like anyone really. Most of the characters were crazy shallow sex obsessed whores who lacked self respect and moral values. I did like Chyna a bit but she's a slapper and an annoying superficial socialite type but she was a good friend and stuck to her guns, which I commend her for. Don't even get me started on Beckah. I felt so bad for Lexi but I just wanted to shake her until she realized there was never love between her and Jack, only lust, obsession, longing, nostalgia, regrets and what-ifs.