The Twins on Thursday: Ties to the Blood Moon by

"The Twins on Thursday" is reserved for the Twins' joint reviews. It is a special feature of our blog that discusses books that we either both like, dislike, or have mixed feelings about. This is also the day where we post reviews for books (and ARCs/Galleys) that have been sent to us by authors/galley sites/publishing houses. And because we don't believe much in uniformity, we'll be trying to mix things up a bit by adding random stuff in relation to our review (well, mostly for books we purchased anyway).

                                                         Title: Ties to the Blood Moon
Author: Robin P. Waldrop
Format Acquired: PDF

Publication Date: January 31, 2012

Publishing House: Createspace

ISBN: 9781467920650
Source of Copy: Sent by author for review

Summary: 

Genevieve is a teenage girl who moves in with her aunt in Alaska after the death of her mother. Soon after her arrival she learns the things she was raised to believe only existed in fairytales are in fact a big part of her history. When it gets to be too much she seeks refuge in the arms of her new boyfriend, William, only to find out he's not who she thought he was either.

            
 (Image and information courtesy of Goodreads; Summary lifted from actual book)

Review:

Following her mother's death, Gen is sent to live with her Aunt Bev in Alaska to contine on with her normal life. Gen thought that maybe she could make a few new friends, flirt with a cute boy... but find out that she's something else entirely? Definitely not what she expected. Gen turns out to be the Adlet princess that the Lycans, the Bloodsuckers, and the Adlets have been waiting for. 

We know that based on the summary alone, you can't tell what kind of book this one is. We were honestly expecting fae, or trolls, or other magical inhabitants of the deep woods. Well, save for the magical part, we got inhabitants of the deep woods alright - werewolves and vampires. There's no way around it - this one reminded us a lot about Stephenie Meyer's Twilight.  In this book, you'll find the new girl who transfers in from a different school, a werewolf and a vampire scrambling for her affections, bonfire parties, a scene all-too reminiscent of a certain sparkly vampire and his besotted prey, and random jet trips to wherever (because one of the guys is rich, and we all know who that is). 

Let's delve in, starting with the characters.

Gen, our heroine, is a brat, and hey, we get it - the teenage years are confusing years. But if you're overly whiny about not getting what you want? You're pretty much a diva. Gen often whines about how overprotective her Aunt Bev is, and how she can't bear to be apart from William. (Gee, Gen. You were doing fine for the past seventeen years, why start now when you've just continuously locked eyes with the guy for a few days?) The whole teenage romance thing with William was highly romanticized and it sent us reeling from all the insta-love. 

William, on the other hand, was not a credible love interest; it was hard to take him and his romantic notions towards Gen seriously. Who does cheesy dances on airplanes? This one apparently does. Joseph, a werewolf and one of Gen’s royal guards, is no different and we couldn’t comprehend his attraction to Gen since he barely spoke to her before she became princess. Both boys are totally devoid of any personality.

The book had quite a number of inconsistencies and the world-building, an essential part in storytelling, was mediocre. The lore regarding the Adlet wolves and the Lycans would have been interesting, if not for the lack of information and detail. It would have been more interesting if their history were to be expounded on and woven throughout the story and their powers explained better. One problem for us was Gen’s transition from supposedly normal girl to Adlet princess. How is it possible that Gen learned to use her powers so fast? Do we chalk it all up to being super strong and superpowered? We wanted to see the struggle Gen had coming to terms with her powers and how she would cope with them to make her seem more real but all we got was a whole lot of whining, foot-stomping, and crying. Later on when she had already accepted that she was the princess, she is sent to find the Crest, some super powerful and super important item that is not elaborated and explained at all. Details were vague at best. 

Aside from that, there were moments where we had problems with both the language and the grammar. Shifts in Gen’s perspective were sometimes abrupt and the inclusion of scenes that had no relevance to the story left us scratching our heads. The scene where Gen gets into a fight and bloodies another girl is another issue, why in the world did the guidance counselor just let her go with no repercussions whatsoever? Regardless of whether Gen was in the wrong or the right, we think that it's highly unlikely that educators would let go of something like this so easily. And right after the fight amidst the cheering crowd? Yeah, William flirts with her and proceeds to asks her out. Uh, that's kind of creepy, don't you think?

We also had issues with William and Gen’s relationship. How did it start? They were looking at each other in the cafeteria and then she proceeded to wax poetic about what a hunk he was and then decided that she was in love. They didn’t interact much and when they do decide to go on a date, they always have to cut it short, because of some conceived danger on Gen’s well-being. So William, if you knew she was being hunted in the first place and that there were people after her, why in the world did you not just stay indoors? It grated on our nerves how Gen tossed around her I-love-you’s so easily, she barely knows the guy and she’s obsessed with him then after a while we find her spouting I LOVE YOU and it’s only been what… a few days? And Joseph, where in the world did Gen’s attraction for him come from? Is it because Joseph, in typical male romantic interest fashion, is buff and possesses bulgy muscles, a pretty face and more bulgy muscles?

If edits were to be made, the inconsistencies smoothed out, and the characters given some dimension, hey, this might work for Twilight fans. But for now, we'll have to give this one nary a star.

Rating:

The Twins on Thursday: Let Him Go by Kaitlyn Felt

"The Twins on Thursday" is reserved for the Twins' joint reviews. It is a special feature of our blog that discusses books that we either both like, dislike, or have mixed feelings about. This is also the day where we post reviews for books (and ARCs/Galleys) that have been sent to us by authors/galley sites/publishing houses. And because we don't believe much in uniformity, we'll be trying to mix things up a bit by adding random stuff in relation to our review (well, mostly for books we purchased anyway).

Title: Let Him Go

Author: Kaitlyn Felt

Format Acquired: PDF
Publication Date: November 13, 2012

Publishing House: CreateSpace / Amazon
ISBN: N/A

Source of Copy: Sent by author for review

Summary: Tenley Alexander is just a simple small-town girl living within the closed realms of her small world. A fresh high school graduate, Tenley tries to keep herself on her toes in the sweet anticipation of leaving her tiny town for good in order to go thrive at her dream collegiate school. However, Tenley's motivation is severely distupted when a love from her past sweeps unexpectedly into her life. With the threat of tripping and falling back into a kind of love that she doesn't want, Tenley's goals become hazy and her little world suddenly expands to be so much bigger.

Jacob Trojan's life is finally turning back to normal. Eight years have passed since his father's tragic death and three more have one by since his brother disappeared off the map. Standing on his feet for the first time in his life, Jacob is determined to do something with his life. With a possible collegiate athletic scholarship on the line and his mother and perfect girlfriend standing proudly behind him, Jacob knows he can't steer wrong. However, that all changes when he lays eyes on Tenley Alexander for the first time in two years...

Leighton Gardner's life is pretty much perfect. She's beautiful and she has also somehow held onto the hand of a beautiful boy for nearly two years. Growing up in a wealthy family as an only child, Leighton is used to getting handed anything she's ever wanted. That's why she's caught off guard when Jacob suddenlybegins to pull his fingers out of her slippery grasp. With the encouragement of her best friend, Leighton unwillingly begins to investigate the many pieces of her life...and finds out that everything she has ever known may not be as perfect as it always seemed...

Based on true events, "Let Him Go" is a story that displays both the good and the bad of small towns, close friendships, and time. Written from three different perspectives, the first book in the "Let Him Go" series will captivate the reader from the very first page until the very last letter.

Review:

As per the popular internet meme going around lately, we'd have to agree with the picture of the guy holding up the bottle and saying, "Well, that escalated quickly." Readers will be quickly thrust into the world of Jacob, Tenley, and Leighton. What can you expect from this book? Drama, drama, and more drama. Was it good drama at least? Well, to be honest, no.

The story starts with Tenley. Tenley, after seeing Jacob in a baseball game, apparently still has not gotten over her two-year crush on Jacob and ends up blasting Taylor Swift - whom we swear might as well be a character in the book as well, the way she always ends up being mentioned - in her car. It is here where she starts having these flashbacks about a particular memory with Jacob. As it turns out, Tenley is not the only one affected by the chance encounter. Jacob's concentration is so affected he can't even focus on the game. And because Jacob is apparently, still mooning over Tenley as well, he also has his own flashback. We are then introduced to Leighton, Jacob's current girlfriend of two years, who seems to notice that her boyfriend's attention is not on her either. Because he's spacing out, Leighton starts spacing out too, and has - you guessed it - a flashback as well. Caught between two girls, Jacob ends up having a hard time deciding which one should he let go of.


Let's start with the characters. We host nightly Skype sessions with each other talking about characters, dissecting them, and then putting them back together piece by piece. Did we connect with any of Felt's characters? Did we want to know what made them tick? Not particularly, nope. 

We found Tenley a gullible mess. When Jacob mentioned that she was independent, we couldn't help but think the opposite. She practically had the guy on a pedestal, and couldn't think of living without him again. She was an insipid damsel-in-distress character who had no other thoughts but JacobJacobJacob, and it was really quite sad. Jacob was probably the worst male protagonist we have ever come across, and we can't understand his appeal at all. He's overly cheesy, dramatic - more than the girls, even - and has these mercurial mood shifts. He plays both girls, and often claims that he loves one more than the other, yet can't seem to let either one of them go. He makes promises he can't keep as well, and has double-standards when it comes to the girls. When he makes a mistake, he always finds a convenient scapegoat to pile the blame on. He doesn't believe in owning up to his mistakes, and that's the part that frustrates us. We get that it is hard to have lost a family figure - it's a personal subject for one of us too - but what Jacob does is throw a constant woe-is-me pity party for himself in the duration of the entire book. In the latter part of the book, he suddenly claims to be Christian, and harangues himself when he has found himself in a particularly sticky situation, like suddenly he was the town's most noble altar boy. We think that at the base of it all, Jacob is afraid to be alone, and is currently not fit for any kind of romantic relationship at all. Leighton, Jacob's girlfriend of two years, has got to be the least irritating of the trio by a tiny margin. She's snobby, conceited, and petty, but she did have some moments where she was the only one who made a little bit of sense.

Tenley's relationship with Jacob can be described as a continuation of an interrupted romance filled with cheesy lines and seemingly "swoon-worthy" material. It was all too much and too fast. Leighton's relationship with Jacob, on the other hand, was like that of an old married couple. They often fought over the pettiest things, and worse of all? Jacob would be the one to blow things out of proportion. Leighton makes a small comment and Jacob practically makes an entire play around it. It is in this relationship that we see a glimpse of a different Jacob - certainly NOT the Jacob that's with Tenley, and it makes us feel afraid that this guy could have some pretty big, and even turbulent, issues.

Speaking of issues, there were a number of things in the book that we definitely did not enjoy. The narration felt like it was taken straight out of a really cheesy soap opera, with extra cheese. I mean, really, are pretty words all it takes for a girl to believe a guy is giving her his undying devotion? Seriously? Also, let's not forget the cringe-worthy quotes that Jacob randomly tosses out. Like say that quote where he talks about being in love with two girls and then choosing the second one? How can a girl honestly take that seriously? Aside from that, the author constantly mentions Taylor Swift and while we both have nothing against her, the frequent references to the singer, along with the random song lyric stanzas  are both unnecessary and irritating. Another thing we found irrelevant were the flashbacks. We get that the author included them to let readers get a feel for the characters' past relationships with each other but it didn't work and truth be had, one of us totally ignored the flashbacks and skipped them while the other had to slave through them. The flashbacks did not add anything to the story and did nothing other than take up space. 

Unfortunately due to the cast of irritable characters, the cheesy soap opera-ish storyline and narration and the disturbing way everyone seemed to have cheated on each other, we  honestly could not bear to give this one a single star.

Rating: