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#MoreMehThanYeah
review
julesG
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Pickpick

😐

Bit underwhelming and an abrupt ending.

Gorgeous psychological descriptions of what goes on in Edward's mind, but all in all I was missing something.

#MoreMehThanYeah

#AwesomeApril #readathon @Andrew65

Low pick. Very low pick.

Andrew65 Well done 👏👏👏 5mo
58 likes1 comment
review
Megabooks
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Mehso-so

Why do I keep reading Miranda books if they‘re usually only so-so or pan for me? I‘m not sure. This one was definitely #MoreMehThanYeah.

Hazel is the daughter of tiny Mirror Lake‘s police chief. When he suddenly dies and a drought uncovers two sunken cars in the lake, she must piece together family secrets — including those held by her two brothers.

TrishB I gave up after one! 5mo
BarbaraBB I never read her! 5mo
66 likes2 comments
review
Robotswithpersonality
An Impossible Impostor | Deanna Raybourn
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Panpan

Ugh. 🙄 Once upon a time I was a teenager who had yet to be steeped in the well-worn, time-wasting, conflict-generating tropes of romance novels. In the decades since, I have had my fill. Which is why I was so profoundly annoyed to encounter them in a beloved historical mystery series with a romance subplot between characters I consider too smart to get caught up in this BULLSHIT. 1/3

Robotswithpersonality 2/3 My only consolation is that I don't see Raybourn getting away with pulling this crap in more than one book in her series. I will happily read the next to help wash this triteness out of my brain. 7mo
Robotswithpersonality 3/3 For those wishing to spring to the book's defense regarding the quality of the mystery/caper, know that I skimmed the second half and read the denouement because I could not stand watching these characters make these ridiculous decisions. Please, please let the next one not involve cliches I flee by skipping pages. 7mo
dabbe #fanofthepan! and your simple-yet-oh-so-poetic #ugh. #rollingtheeyesisgoodtoo
🤩🤩🤩
7mo
See All 13 Comments
Robotswithpersonality @dabbe Pretty sure they were the first things I said and did after I finished the book! 🤦🏼‍♂️ 7mo
julesG I marked the book a pick, but I had the same issues. Why did Raybourn make their affair into a YA? I hope the next one does better. (out today, btw) 7mo
Robotswithpersonality @julesG I still have to read 8, hopefully by the time I get to it, my library will have 9. 7mo
julesG Also, I let authors get away with a lot of tropes because I mostly listen to audiobooks at 2.0+ speed. And I really only listen to Veronica Speedwell novels. 7mo
julesG Now that you mention it, I can't remember much about book 8. The affair wasn't the strongest part of the story. 🤔 But it had a lot of Tiberius. I'd like to see more of Stoker's brothers. 7mo
Robotswithpersonality @julesG Happy to have a lil more Tiberius. 😉 7mo
rretzler I used to really look forward to this series, but they seem to have fallen off lately. Unfortunately, it appears that I read 8, but didn‘t write down my rating. I remember thinking that I wasn‘t sure if I wanted to preorder 9 though. 7mo
rretzler Apparently, I decided to give Raybourn another chance as I just opened my Kindle to see that A Grave Robbery has magically appeared this AM! 7mo
11 likes1 stack add13 comments
review
julesG
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Panpan

This was a #MoreMehThanYeah read.

Two timelines, one set in 1930s, one in 1880s.
Both about a Scottish woman taking care of their ailing fathers, both forced to work, one set mainly in Scotland the other mainly on the US east coast.

In 1930s, Emmie has come back to the UK from Australia, where she got a doctorate in botany and spent time discovering plants in jungles and deserts. ⬇️

#BookChain24
#52bookclub24 - Published by Hachette

julesG On one of her trips to the tiny islands in the Pacific she encounters a shaman, who gives her a stuffed bird of paradise that a ghost left with him about 50 years ago. Now Emmie is supposed to work at a remote Scottish castle to classify the collection amassed there. But it turns out that job is a ruse, Emmie is supposed to help find a treasure and she has a key to it in her possession.
⬇️
7mo
julesG Emmie starts her treasure hunt and finds the diary of Hester, written 50 years ago. It tells how Hester grew up in the castle, then moved to the USA and then had to run for her life.

This book is not just a treasure hunt, but also a finding of identity. Because, it seems, no one involved in the story truly is who they pretend to be. (spoiler: it was rather obvious from the start) ⬇️
7mo
julesG Annoyingly, the 1880s timeline about the Scottish woman who grew up in the Scottish Highlands until she was 9/10 years old then moved to the US with her Scottish father was narrated by an American. Why? This child and later woman would retain some of her Scottish accent, especially since she lived rather isolated with her father for quite some time. It pulled me out of the story every time. 7mo
Librarybelle That‘s a disappointment! 7mo
dabbe #fanofthepan! 🤩🤩🤩 7mo
61 likes5 comments
review
julesG
Funny Story | Emily Henry
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Panpan

#NetGalley #ARC #MountARC #UnpopularOpinion

This was #MoreMehThanYeah

Daphne was dumped by her fiancé Peter. Miles was dumped by his girlfriend Petra. Petra is Peter's BFF. Peter decides, at his bachelor party, that Petra is the woman for him, not Daphne. Daphne now needs to move out. She can have a room in Miles's flat, since Petra moved out of Miles's flat to move in with Peter. When the wedding invitation for Petra and Peter's wedding... ⬇️

julesG ... arrives, Daphne blurts out that Miles and her are an item. Let the fake dating games begin. But, of course, both MCs come with a wagon-load of baggage each that makes making friends, dating, and trusting very difficult.

The characters were supposed to be over 30 years old, but neither MC felt like they matured past their mid-twenties. Neither seemed to be fully fleshed out to me, either.⬇️
7mo
julesG I was turning the pages to find the special something that I liked about Henry's earlier books, but just couldn't find it.

(By the way, both P-named characters have a last name starting with Co - why?)
7mo
dabbe #fanofthepan! 🤩🤩🤩 7mo
See All 6 Comments
julesG @dabbe Love your # 7mo
dabbe @julesG Life's too short--too many books to read. I love when people give it a go and are ready to move on! 🤩😂😘 7mo
julesG @dabbe right, life's too short 7mo
60 likes1 stack add6 comments
review
julesG
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Pickpick

Making my way through the "Impossible Meet Cute Collection"

This one was #MoreMehThanYeah until that unexpected (and rather tiny thing) that gave the story an interesting twist.

Rosie treats her sister to a luxurious spa day and gets trapped in the floating tank. An embarrassing situation turns into an impossible meet cute.

#SeriesLove2024 @TheSpineView @Andrew65

Andrew65 Great progress 👏👏👏 8mo
TheSpineView Awesome! 8mo
51 likes2 comments
blurb
julesG
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#BookReport

Making my way through the GraphicAudio editions of Murderbot: book 3 is my current car-audiobook, re-read books 6 and 5 this week. (Book 7 is expected to be published in April)

Geneva was #MoreMehThanYeah
Cluelessly Yours - contemporary romance, not as funny as I expected
Never Wager with a Wallflower - ARC, third book in the series, took me two weeks to finish 🙄

Re-reading Emily Wilde, because I had preordered the audiobook ⬇️

julesG Second go through Cain's Jawbone - it will take me several more re-reads to figure this one out. Started The Ferryman for #LitsySciFiBookClub - not sure I'll finish it. The Paradoxes book might go into hibernation (ARC). 9mo
TrishB I didn‘t think you‘d like The Ferryman! 9mo
See All 9 Comments
julesG @TrishB Definitely not my kind of Sci-fi. Gives me Neal Stephenson flashbacks. 😬 9mo
TrishB I‘ve never read Stephenson but did like The Ferryman 😁 9mo
Andrew65 Excellent 👏👏👏 9mo
Flaneurette What app are you using for this?? Looks interesting! I didn‘t like Ferryman either (edited) 8mo
julesG @Flaneurette It's Bookmory and I've only started using it in late December, but I like it for the calendar function. 8mo
Flaneurette Thank you! I also like that calendar view! 8mo
53 likes9 comments
review
julesG
The Curse of Penryth Hall | Jess Armstrong
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Panpan

#audiobook #ARC #NetGalley #MoreMehThanYeah

Underwhelming.

It's 1920. Fallen New York heiress Ruby now lives in Exeter, UK. Her bookshop partner asks her to deliver a trunk full of books to the pellar of a smallish Cornwall community. Coincidentally the town is near Penryth Hall where the former love of her life now lives with husband and child. Ruby stays with the couple and the husband is murdered in the night - by The Curse, of course.

1/?

julesG I wanted to see more descriptions of the titular hall and more gothic atmosphere. There are inconsistencies and this is something that can be dealt with during the editing process. The backstory of Ruby and Tamsyn might have worked better up front than dragged out over the course of the novel. The heroine behaves like a third wave feminist in a first wave feminism world, nearly gets killed several times and should turn her back 2/? 10mo
julesG but she's coming back for more when called in an emergency without any close connection to the community other than Tamsyn. No one in this novel seems to have any form of reasonable motivation for what they are doing. The first person POV didn't help either.

Though I have to say, I enjoyed the banter between Ruby and her elderly Scottish housemate/boss at the beginning and end of the novel. That was good. 3/3
10mo
See All 6 Comments
DieAReader 🥳🥳🥳 10mo
Cheryl_Russell_BookNotes Same feelings here. 9mo
50 likes6 comments
review
julesG
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Panpan

This was #MoreMehThanYeah - 600+ pages of bland characters and a plot that didn't make a lot of sense, and talking cats. It was a chore to get through.

Read this #ARC because I liked Butcher's Dresden Files and because the second book in the series was published on 7th November (my next #NetGalley #ARC).

#SeriesLove2023 @TheSpineView @Andrew65
#NovelNovember #readathon

TheSpineView Bummer! 10mo
44 likes1 comment
review
julesG
Ten Years | Pernille Hughes
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Panpan

Working on my #NetGalley #MountARC - this was published in 2022

This was a #MoreMehThanYeah read for me. I thought the main characters were too much like teenagers who held a grudge against each other for no apparent reason. That's what made the book dreg on for me. The eventual HEA felt weird.