Review: Evermore

Evermore by Sara Holland
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Edelweiss, HarperTeen, and Sara Holland for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

Evermore is the sequel to Everless. Sometimes you can get away without reading the first novel in a series and they can stand alone. This is not the case. Without reading the first novel you will feel fairly lost and won’t understand what is going on, how the world works, and the characters’ backstories. There is no real recap of what has happened previously to catch you up on where we are in the story. If you have read the first book you will remember that Jules Ember is the ancient Alchemist, who has lived twelve previous lives and is in a battle with The Sorceress. Jules had no prior memory of her other lives and is still trying to play catch up on her history, her powers and figuring out how she can kill The Sorceress. She stole the Sorceress’ heart and broke it into pieces and swallowed it. This is her last life and if she dies all is lost. The Sorceress has been alive the whole time, killed The Alchemist each life and controlled the last Queen. The new queen is Jules’ twin sister but doesn’t know it and thinks Jules has killed their father. Jules is in love with Liam, who has been helping her learn about her history and prepare for her battle against The Sorceress. The Sorceress is on a mission to kill all those who are close to Jules in an effort to break her heart. Only then will The Sorceress be able to kill her and steal her power back. In this land people give their blood because it holds their time, their years in life. Rich people have loads of time, whereas poor people beg for an hour of time.

I am sorry to say that I really didn’t enjoy this one any more than the first. The same problems that plagued the first book cropped up in this one. I had hopes that with the second one, they would have worked on things like character development, story problems and building something exciting, but nope, didn’t happen. I thought there were huge problems. I can’t stand when writers rely on tropes and don’t bother to develop storylines. Liam and Jules love story wasn’t developed in the first book and just because you say they are in love, then six chapters later they kiss and then they SLEEP TOGETHER???? Why - I don’t buy it. They have to share some experiences, build some connection. Most of the story was her rejecting him, pushing him away because she didn’t want him to be a target. He may or may not have been hurt, who know because we never hear that much from him, he believes she doesn’t like him because they aren’t that close and then boom - they are in love. Nope. The whole story was weak. There wasn’t any buildup up to the final scene between The Sorceress and The Alchemist. If I am waiting two books then please, make it exciting! Don’t get me started on her twin sister. That was the weakest storyline ever! She starts off by telling her sister she did kill Roan and then no contact, for hundreds of pages and Ina is hunting her, ready to kill her, and all of a sudden she believes her? Even Jules says that everybody else questioned her more than Ina. Why was she believed? I thought it was a trick until nope, nothing else is mentioned. I DON’T GET IT!!! I hate when YA books get lazy. Even the small details bothered me. When Jules puts on the Huntsman’s costume after sleeping with Liam (which is still bothering me because you are cutting out a whole bunch of readers when you add sex to the mix, especially when it wasn’t necessary), Jules comments that she hopes no one notices that the costume doesn’t fit properly and the cloak hangs crooked. Why doesn’t it fit properly? It was her twin sister’s? It should have fit perfectly. But because she was sneaking around it fits the storyline better to make her in an outfit that doesn’t fit because it creates tension in case she is caught. To me, that is manipulation, cheap and lazy of the author. I do have to say that the covers are beautiful and suck me in each time. I think that there are other series that are better worth your time and investment.

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Review: The Minimalist Home: A Room-By-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life

The Minimalist Home: A Room-By-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life by Joshua Becker
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley, Waterbrook and Multnomah, and Joshua Becker for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

Joshua Becker has been in the “minimal” business for about 10 years. He has a website where you can get lots of tips and advice, including a newsletter sent to your inbox every so often. He has written other books but this one is sort of the culmination of his life’s work. He has been on TV, speaks all over and I have been following him for the past couple of years. In today’s world of massive consumerism, we can all use a dose of paring down and keeping things simple. We all have too much stuff. We are promoted, advertised, propagandized into thinking that it’s all stuff we need, what we have isn’t the right stuff and that the more stuff we have the happier we will be. This has been going on for years, I mean George Carlin had a bit about “Stuff” in the early 80’s. So I was excited to read what Becker had to say on what he promotes as a step by step, comprehensive room-by-room guide to decluttering your home and your life.

Ugh - what an awful read. First I felt like his tone was so condescending. I couldn’t take it. Obviously I have a lot of stuff - that’s why I’m reading this book. He would repeat himself, ad nauseam, throughout the whole book. There wasn’t any comprehensive guide - again, he would repeat the same thing over and over for each room, literally the same steps - for each room! Why bother going through each room, listing all of the possible things you might have accumulated, telling me “get rid of what you don’t use or don’t need”. Obviously I knew that much! I don’t need a book for that. I was hoping for some insight, maybe some ideas that I hadn’t thought of to help declutter, some instructions. There was no real guidance other than “don’t do it” for lasting change. Then, don’t tell me how my life is going to change, I will become richer, have a fabulous job, help the poor, have more time, blah blah blah, just because you told me to get rid of some stuff. I didn’t buy any of it. I have decluttered before and none of those things have happened to me. The “real life” examples were ridiculous, laughable. Look, I believe in keeping a home without a lot of junk. Nobody needs piles of clothes, lots of knick knacks, and yes, you should keep those things that mean something to you. You shouldn’t get sucked into marketing ideas of having the latest, greatest and best thing out there, which will go out of date and then you need something new. I also happen to live with a (mild case) hoarder, who believes every rock, piece of junk, paper, etc. is extremely important and sentimental and will not throw out anything. So according to Becker, those are the things to keep. Not helpful. But without something new or real to add to the discussion, don’t fill up a book with one idea. My advice is don’t add one more book to your bookshelf with this one.

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Review: The Similars

The Similars by Rebecca Hanover
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire, and Rebecca Hanover for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

Imagine the chance of going to school with the first set of human clones. The Similars, a group of six teenagers, will be attending Darkwood Academy and Emma is less than excited. Created by a rogue lab technician, they have been kept secret, raised apart from society, with only each other for company by a mysterious guardian. Until now. Now they will be going to school with their human counterparts. What will they be like? Will they be exactly like their doubles? Will they like the same things, behave the same way, be good at the same things? I mean, they have the exact same DNA. Emma might be more excited if one of them weren’t the exact copy of her best friend, Oliver. Oliver is the only one who won’t be meeting his clone because he committed suicide last summer. Emma still hasn’t come to terms with his death and now she has to run into his face everywhere - in class, in the halls, in the cafeteria. But it isn’t Oliver, it is Levi, his clone. Levi would rather not have to walk around with some dead kid’s face but he wasn’t given a choice in the matter. He gets that Emma can’t stand him, but she doesn’t even know him. But Emma doesn’t trust the clones, something is off with them. They can’t be trusted. But no one believes her. Now Prudence, her human friend has been attacked. Was it the clones? Was it someone who wants the clones dead and got the wrong twin? Emma is determined to find out and that might just give her some answers to why Oliver died.

I really like the premise of this story. The execution lacked for me. There were too many things going on and I didn’t find any of the story lines very exciting. It had potential but without development it fell flat. I didn’t really bond with any of the characters, so I didn’t really care what happened to any of them. There was the usual teenage angst, very predictable stuff with the cool kids being mean to Emma and her friends, of course the Emma/Levi romantic storyline, really nothing new, not even an interesting take on the old stuff. It was so predictable that the author didn’t even bother to develop the romantic storyline. They didn’t like each other and then they were in love - for no reason at all. Having six clones meant that there were too many to develop any of their characters, but even as a group we didn’t really get to know them. You could have had their point of view told through a character like Pippa. There were some enjoyable parts and the ending had some worthwhile bits, but overall I was disappointed.

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Review: Liars' Paradox

Liars' Paradox by Taylor Stevens
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley, Kensington Books, and Taylor Stevens for an excerpt of this book. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving this excerpt.

Meet Jack. He busts into a room, grabs a woman off of her lover, throws her on his shoulders and into the trunk of his car. He has been trailing her. Is he a stalker? Jealous ex? Nope. When he releases her from the trunk, they go at it like Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Except these aren’t love interests. This is brother and sister. It is obvious that they have both been trained as assassins. Their “mom”, or the woman who trained them, needs to see them. When they approach her out-of-the-way home, it blows up in front of them. So the story begins.

So, you can get the idea that this is a mix of Kill Bill, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and any other famous trained assassin movie you can think of. It reads a little like those old gumshoe movies with the voice overs. From the excerpt it seems to have more violence and sex than those old movies would have shown. I’m not sure if it peaked my interest enough to go buy the book. I would have loved to have read the whole thing and give you a better idea of what it was like and see if I would have been interested enough to invest in the series, but I just didn’t get enough information from the excerpt to be able to tell. My fault for not reading the publisher’s note that the whole book was available to download at a later date.What I did read wasn’t enough to make me want to run out and buy it. There are just too many books in this world that I know I want to read first. That being said, it peaked my curiosity enough that if I come across it on sale, I’m interested enough to give the first book a try.

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Review: You Are Not Your Thoughts: The Secret Magic of Mindfulness

You Are Not Your Thoughts: The Secret Magic of Mindfulness by Frances Trussell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley, Frances Trussell and John Hunt Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

You are not your thoughts - what a concept. If I could do that, I’d be a happier little lamb! That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t aspire to higher thinking. Now I know, I know, this is not a new concept but it bears worth repeating, or reading, over and over again. I seriously dove into the mindfulness/meditation world around 6 years ago and have read, studied and practiced a ton. So, I was looking forward to reading a new voice. Frances Trussell is based out of London and is a mindfulness, meditation teacher among other things. She has a meditation podcast called The Mindfully Happy podcast and this is her first book. It is small - just over 100 pages. I have to say that everything she discusses is right on the money. She offers many gems, or words of wisdom. The first third of the book she talks about mindfulness with the last two thirds focusing on meditation.

This isn’t a trite book and it doesn’t come off all buzz wordy. She knows her stuff and brings up many important issues that can help us lead a better life. Her main topic is trying to quiet the voice in our head. You know, the one that talks to us all day long, reading from a script that was written a long time ago, that criticizes and beats us down. That voice stops us from being our true self. When it is talking we are either living in the past, or worrying about the future. The amazing thing is no one else knows what that voice is saying or believes it to be true. Only us! We probably won’t be able to totally get rid of it but if we can at least be aware and keep it quiet, all kinds of wonderful things open up to us. With awareness comes space that will allow us to be more true to ourselves. One of the ways of creating space is meditation. Trussell takes you through from a beginning meditation to more advanced ones, explaining the how to and the goal of each one so you can progress accordingly. She also provides links to her website and podcast so you can use these additional sources.

I think the meditation part she did better than the mindfulness. You can’t just throw out a whole but of platitudes and expect people to understand how to go about this very hard work. I would have rathered she focus on one thing with mindfulness and then go on to the meditation part. Like I said, everything she writes is true and important but without guidance I think most people will be lost. Certainly, if you are new to this, I don’t think this will offer any chance at lasting change, or even start you on the road properly. And I have a huge problem with that. I think it is irresponsible to sort of drop all of this stuff out there and not back it up. That’s how mindfulness gets all twisted up and distorted and people don’t really understand what to do with it. I don’t think that if even offers inspiration that will motivate newcomers to go off and learn more. Because I better understand what she is saying, I could nod and agree with it as I read along, but it didn’t help move me along in my practice either. So not for beginners, not for experienced. One thing she does say, which bears repeating, is that there is no wrong and trying is doing. Just by the act of thinking about your inner voice can make a shift. I would encourage anyone to explore this idea of “you are not your thoughts” because all it can do is add to your life in a positive way. She does a much better job with explaining the meditation. Probably because she teaches it, she is better able to break it down. For that alone, the book is worth it.


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Review: Ashtanga Yoga Practice Cards: The Primary Series

Ashtanga Yoga Practice Cards: The Primary Series by Kino MacGregor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley, Shambhala Publications Inc., and Kino MacGregor for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

This is a book of practice cards. Each has an illustration of the pose, the name of the pose, an explanation of how to execute the pose and the benefits to your body. The explanation is quite detailed and very thorough. There are standing poses, seated poses, finishing poses with a small opening and closing prayer. It seems like you could print out them out as cards and mix and match them to make your own routine. You could always trade old pose cards in and create new routines, increasing level of difficulty as you master certain poses. There are almost 60 poses in all.

The illustrations are great and show the “ideal” way the pose should be executed. Unless you are extremely flexible or very advanced, you won’t look like her. I like the section on the benefits of each pose because it is nice to know how each one helps your body. She gives lots of cues for how to do each pose, which muscles need to pull in or tighten, where to look, all the instructions an actual live instructor would give.

Be warned that I think you need some experience in ashtanga yoga before attempting any of these cards. There are also no order or easier to harder poses and if you just decide to “try” it out, you could hurt yourself. There aren’t any warnings as to who should use this, seeing a doctor or any other warnings that usually accompany even the easiest physical exercise programs. I also happen to know that if you have high blood pressure there are certain poses that you should never try because you can pass out. So if I was doing this in my home, by myself, that might be very dangerous. Some of these are very advanced poses and without the proper build up of skills and muscle control you could really hurt yourself.

So, if you have enough experience and are just using this as a guide, I think it might be helpful. If you are starting from scratch and are looking to educate yourself with the book, I say - go take a class or 10 or 100, before relying on these cards. Remember, in yoga, it is not about executing the pose “perfectly” but doing what you can, at your level, to the best of your ability, without pushing yourself.

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Review: The Liar's Wife

The Liar's Wife by Samantha Hayes
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture, and Samantha Hayes for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.


This was the worst. I haven’t read a bad book in a while, but this was a snoozer. The conflict happens right at the beginning and then you are left with 300 pages of boring, boring, boring, until the big reveal at the end. I didn’t like any of the characters, I had no sympathy for Ella being abused, honestly, I felt like I was getting a blow in the head each chapter I kept reading. If not for receiving this book from NetGalley, I would not have finished it. But, I felt an obligation and was hoping that it would improve as I went along. Clearly, not everyone, I mean mostly everyone, doesn’t agree with me because it has a 4 star rating on Goodreads. I would interrupt this to mean that it was above average.

So meet Ella. She is a boring non-nondescript person who doesn’t socialize with anyone at her place of work. Riding her bike home, she is in a terrible accident that lands her in the hospital. When she wakes from her coma, her loving husband is there, holding her hand, doting on her. Everyone tells her how lucky she is. Except that she is not married and is clearly afraid of the man who is standing before her. She thought he was long dead. There is history there and he is blackmailing her into going along with his little ruse. We don’t know what Jacob’s name really is and as she recollects the past, we are to figure out who he is. Jacob empties her apartment and moves her into a big new beautiful house. She is kept prisoner there, getting hit for the smallest of infractions. He forces her to quit her job, but WAIT. There is a guy that she has never spoken to, never gone out with, even in a group in a casual setting, won’t even accept a ride home from him, that she smiled at once after years of working there who is suspicious of what is happening. Can he save her? Who is Jacob? Why are her neighbours so nosy? What will happen to Ella??

Geez, sorry, I can’t. It was all too ridiculous. Even if all that worked, the baby thing just put it over the top. I don’t want to go into too much detail, because I don’t want to reveal spoilers for those readers who want to read it. For me, more depth and fully drawn out characters was needed. Spending more time developing them would have allowed the audience to be invested and care about what was happening to them. Too many archetypes were being thrown around, leaving you to fill in the blanks. There were lots of loose ends for characters that a lot of time was spent on, but I’m not sure why? What was the purpose of Meggie? All that buildup that didn’t lead to anywhere? There were plot holes that just made things messy, didn’t make any sense, didn’t serve a purpose and those could have been edited out to make more room developing things that should have been developed. Also, if you have read more than a couple of these mysteries, you know there are bound to be red herrings. Spending three quarters of the book on what was an obvious red herring just ended up being a boring read. The reveal wasn’t so shocking and l was so happy it was over, I didn’t care. Then, the aftermath, was like a Hallmark movie where everyone got their happy ending. Bluch!! If all of it was true, from Ella’s childhood to her relationships to what happened, she needs therapy, not another boyfriend.

So, not for me, but I am just one opinion. Others have found it enjoyable and I am not one to judge. On this one, you will have to decide for yourself.

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