"Touch of Frost" by Jennifer Estep

This is one of those books with a huge fan club, which I end up being disappointed with. Seriously, I can't understand what all the commotion is about.

Firstly, the main character being a gypsy sort of bothered me. That's because everyone has this incredibly romantic understanding of gypsies, which is soooo untrue. Maybe it was true in the middle ages or something. But today... let me say that it's as far from the truth as the Earth is from the Sun. Perhaps that's fine because this is a work of fiction and you know, it's written so it would be likeable. But I just couldn't like it.

Secondly, I love books with lots of dialogue in them and action. Here we have a bunch of back story, narration and blah-blah stuff that I could very easily just skip over and not miss anything interesting or important. That is a huge minus in my eyes, because I like it when a book entices me so much that I get hungry for EACH AND EVERY word on the page. Touch of Frost was not like that. I got very easily distracted from it, and found myself thinking of anything else but the story.

Thirdly, the main character, Gwen, didn't touch me in any way. I was rather bored and unimpressed with her. She was just another girl, nothing special about her. Until we learned that indeed she was supposed to be very special in the story (but I didn't feel like she was). I can't even remember a single thing about her that made her any different than the regular Mythos population.

Logan was this spartan boy who had to get me all crazy about him. But all he managed to do was get bored. He was supposed to be the bad boy of the story, kick-butt and you know. The man. But for some reason he didn't make my heart flutter, or my imagination go wild, or anything at all.

So, I don't think I should continue with this series. It's obvious that it isn't doing it for me.


My rating is

"The Future We Left Behind" by Mike A. Lancaster

NOTE: This is a book I requested from Netgalley.

Well, this book was definitely different from the ones I usually read. It had a LOT of sci-fi elements in it, along with dystopia. I hadn't read the prequel, but it didn't really matter. I breezed through it, because it was really good. But, I was kind of confused of the ending - it raised more questions than it answered, which sometimes is annoying. Like in this case. I'd definitely be on the lookout for the next installment though.

So, here we have a story about a different - should I say generation - of humans. Ones that have actual software operating system. Yeah, it's weird I know. What's more weird though is that that operating system gets upgrades. And some people seem to be immune to those upgrades so they are left behind. Thus the title.

The story is pretty simple, but it's quite intriguing. I found myself turning the pages pretty quickly, being hungry for more. And I loved how the main character, Peter Vincent, got the courage to break from the norm he had been expected to follow, and just do what he believed was right. He threw away the bright "future" that he was supposed to experience, and turned back to look at the past. Because there was a lot to learn from the past.

I think The Future We Left Behind is a nice relaxing read. If you're into sci-fi dystopia stories, you should definitely check it out.

My rating is

"Yesterday" by C.K. Kelly Martin

NOTE: I received this title from Netgalley.

Ummmmm... sadly, reading this book was a torture. And I truly hate saying this, but it's the truth. I don't even know why I stuck to the end, perhaps because there were moments of "Oh, I hope this turns out good after all". But it didn't. It was a complete waste of time.

So here how it goes:

The first chapter got me hooked. I loved the mystery of it and how it developed. I liked Freya's character, and her fighting spirit. But then, everything changed. It was confusing, to say the least. It was slow and boring and for the first 30-40% of the book nothing really happened. A bunch of inconsequential characters were introduced, and honestly I don't think they had any place in the story. Perhaps the author wanted to make a point (though I can't tell what it might be), but it just didn't work.

Then, Freya stumbled upon Garren, and I thought "Finally! Something's gonna happen!" But. No. More boring chapters follow, and I don't even remember what happened in them.

It wasn't until we neared the 50% mark that things kind of got moving. But we never get any glimpse in this absolutely confusing world until Freya goes to the hypnotherapist. Then guess what happens? More. Boring. Chapters. Why, in the name of a white cuddly bunny, did the author dedicate so many (like 20) pages to just droll on and on and on in a newspaper monotone voice about the world where Freya and Garren are really from? I mean, all those hundreds of facts are suddenly poured down on the reader, and it's just incredibly irritating and not to mention, confusing! I was lost in the first page, and had to just skip around till I found the place where they were talking about characters. Honestly, it didn't take me more than 2 lines to catch up to the stuff I'd skipped over. So, umm.. yeah..

And, keeping to my honesty policy, I'm also going to share that I didn't like the characters. Not one of them. They were distant to me. The way they spoke bothered me. Their behavior displeased me. And even their supposed outer beauty nauseated me.

Which all leads to just one conclusion: I would not be reading the sequel. It's unfortunate, I know, especially since putting together a book is a lot of hard work. But at least, when you're going to work on it so much, make it interesting. That's all I'm saying.


So, my rating is