Melissa Simonson

This book definitely not what I'd expected! The first thing that caught my eye was the blurb, which was immersive and engaging right off the bat.

The blurb in simpler terms: Ben is still grieving over the ugly death of his girlfriend Carissa. Then he runs into someone who tells him—it doesn't have to be over.

The writing style for this was, without a doubt, the most engaging part of this book. A lot of the writing, especially near the beginning, described what was going on inside the mind of the main character, and I loved how much of his thoughts we could read. All the narrative paragraphs in the book were captivating, and I loved the use of figurative language.

The character development for the main character was extremely strong and I felt as though I got to know Carissa as well, which is ironic and MESSES WITH MY HEAD when I think about it. I do wish we got to see more of some of the other characters; for example, I loved Kylie a lot, and I wish she had a bigger role and got more screentime.

The plot for Lingering was super exciting as well! Even though it wasn't always exactly "action-packed," I felt as though the emotional storyline was written very well and I definitely felt the build-up and anxiety as the story progressed. I think the climax scenes could have been drawn out a little longer because, compared to the rest of the book, it was less in Ben's head, and I wouldn't have been opposed to reading more of that!

The premise for this book was already super interesting, and I've always loved thinking about how "humanity" could be defined and how easily it can be manipulated. This book definitely made me think a lot, and I found thinking about how feasible this actually could be. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes contemporary science fiction!… (mais)

When I first started reading this book, I didn't like it but there was something that told me to keep reading and I'm so glad that I did. It's a wonderful book about family (unconventional but still family) and learning to trust yourself. Days after finishing it, I am still thinking about the two sisters.

When Kat is very young, her father died and Caroline her teenage sister was granted custody. Caroline is a perfect sister and she takes raising Kat very seriously. She plans her life and her future and Kat follows her plans to the letter....until a policeman comes to the door to arrest Caroline to seeing fire to her ex-boyfriend's house with him in it. Once the sisters are separated from each other, Kat has to learn to grow up and trust herself to plan her future while she diligently works to get her sister out of jail.

This is an excellent character driven coming of age novel that will keep you cheering for Kat to learn to be her own person.… (mais)

I'm giving this book 2.5 stars, because while it was all over the place and I skimmed some parts of it, the last maybe 30% were really good, I think. The author makes some really tough choices and while the ending will not be to everyone's liking, I thought it was a brave move. I'm also guessing there will be a second book? It sort of sets the sequel.

In reality, this is a good book, and I really liked the story, but it's the writing that's all over the place, and that kind of ruined it for me. The pace was way too fast, but slow at the same time. It's like, when I really needed things to happen fast, they dragged on and on. And in the beginning, everything happens so fast, I needed that to happen slower, all of it. At times I felt like I was missing some scenes, when in reality they haven't even been written. I didn't get to know the characters much, other than what the author basically tells you. There are four POVs that just randomly shift and it could get confusing at times, especially the timeline, I had no idea if the scene I just read happened before, after, or during the one I'm reading atm.

Here's what I thought - if this story was focused on Colin and Cameron, held captive down there, if the author worked on this connection the two of them develop, this very subtle romance between them (without the weird silent talking)... it would have been an awesome book. If I'm being honest, I only really cared what was going on with them - being in Sam's head was really exhausting (he wasn't creepy, he was just an angry man with mommy issues), plus it takes away that mystery of what he's up to, because he practically tells you everything. Being in Amy's head just made me hate her. Being in John's head, I was so bored, and he came off as a psychic rather than an FBI agent with good intuition.

What I did like about it was that Cameron's POV was first person, while all the others were third person. It really worked well with the story.

In the end, the whole doubles thing was completely unnecessary - this is essentially Cameron's story, not Amy's.

No graphic sex scenes of any kind, and even the violence was... mildly graphic. I wish the author took a chance on this - it would have made this story a million times more horrific and creepier. Don't think you'll be reading something similar to Kitty Thomas, because it's nothing like it. It's, what I would call, a clean read. Everything is sort of implied, but you don't see any of it.

I got this for free and I didn't expect much though the blurb promised something a bit different than what I read. It's a good premise, but ultimately, it didn't deliver. I got close to DNFing a couple of times but I persevered and I'm happy I did. I say give this a try if you're not into dark erotica, but want something similar (minus the graphic sex and torture scenes.) It definitely is a bit of a darker read.… (mais)

4.5

Iris Avery and Estella Blake had been friends since they were kids. Two beautiful trust fund party girls living the life of alcohol and drugs. Until the night Estella takes her own life. After that fateful night, in some ways Iris is free from messed up crazy girl Estella, yet in other ways she’s more shackled than ever before. When people close to her are murdered and weird packages show up in her home she needs to figure out who knows the truth about the night Estella died before she’s next on the hit parade.

Well, where do I start with this book? Estella and Iris are some messed up people. Yow doggy. I know money can’t buy happiness, but to live the life they were just boggles my mind. Estella was pretty much beyond hope, but at least Iris was salvageable.

Well-written and fast-paced the mystery kept me turning the pages. The paranormal twist was very interesting, too. The only thing that kept this book from being a 5-biter was I had a hard time connecting to Iris. I hated her head-in-the-sand attitude and didn’t quite understand her love/hate relationship with Darren. Maybe I just missed something that someone else will get. The ending was a bit of a question. What the heck is Iris going to do now? Otherwise, this book is a keeper for me and I will jot Melissa Simonson’s name down on my Favorite Authors list. A most excellent read!

*Book source ~ Many thanks to Red Adept Publishing for providing me with a review copy. Please see disclaimer page on my blog.… (mais)