Douglas’s Comments (group member since Jun 15, 2017)

Douglas’s comments from the Read, Reading, Planning to Read and More group.

I started This Vicious Grace and only 25% into it I find it very entertaining and well written (and also a bit frustrating). It is at it most basic a caterpillar into a butterfly story and I can't wait for the transformation.

Melindeeloo wrote: "I am not generally a YA reader but my daughter (who is no longer a YA herself) rec'd this fantasy with romance to me and I thought it was really good. This Vicious Grace
It is on KU..."

Well I grabbed the one on KU and requested the 2rd book from NetGalley

For those who have a Netgalley account, you might want to check out this one. I gave it 4 stars but it could have been 5 easily with a few tweaks. The story and romance was very good though and it was hard to put down overall.

Second Duke's the Charm

Just finished The Duchess and the Wolf and it is a good 4 Star story that will stress you out a bit and lags a bit in the middle but has a good 5 Star ending

I mentioned about 2 weeks ago I think that I had grabbed a book called Dark State simply because it had over 14,000 reviews and a 4.5 average. I started it tonight HOLY SHIT I hate to go to bed, this is like nonstop action and throw in some terrorist attacks (a bit gruesome) and some serious whodunnit type stuff and at this rate it will be finished before lunch tomorrow if I can get real life to leave me alone. kind of like Jack Reacher on steroids

reading a book where the hero and heroine just got married and everything looks like an HEA and I look down and it is at 54% so I know something terrible is coming. Makes me want to just stop reading it for a day or 2

DemetraP wrote: "That is a good point. I saw the blurb and the chess part and thought it was mostly about chess."

The author uses chess as a background, it could have been anything such as a piano savant. While I loved the chess part the story was about an extremely gifted child/girl/lady and the fact that being a genius does not stop you from making mistakes in life but I loved the ending in the mini-series and would assume the book is pretty much the same. She spends most of her life socially inept and the growth is painful but the chess is used to kind of soften the blow I guess :)

DemetraP wrote: "Douglas wrote: "Drama is something I am not a big fan of but in browsing through Amazon (I really should stop that) I saw The Queen's Gambit and it had over 22, 000 reviews and a 4.7 a..."

FYI: The book entered the New York Times best seller list 37 years after it was published after the mini-series was released to the largest ratings of any mini-series in Netflix history. It would seem a lot of folks like me just could not get enough of this story and no real knowledge of chess is required since obviously if that was the real thrust of the story that many people would not have been so enthralled as I was :)

Drama is something I am not a big fan of but in browsing through Amazon (I really should stop that) I saw The Queen's Gambit and it had over 22, 000 reviews and a 4.7 average but I am trying to work down my review backlog and I saw an article that said the 7 episode Netflix series captured the book really well so I thought I would watch episode 1 and see if it grabbed me ..... 2 days later I finished the final episode and hated to see it end. I assume the book is exceptional but I can say I have not watched ANY drama on TV that held my attention much less have me sad to not have more to watch in many years. Highly recommend

Paula wrote: "Well I read this book you recommended Doug. and I really enjoyed it and I added to it's high star rating. I'll be reading more of his books."

That was one of those books I saw while browsing and the fact it had over 14,000 reviews and still had a bit over a 4.5 star average said a LOT of people really liked it :)

DemetraP wrote: "I read a thriller. Gatekeeper #2. The main character is Dez Limerick. He gets a call from a friend who says her sister, a reporter, was attacked and can he come help. He comes to help and finds all..."

(below comments are based mainly on reviews and articles on book 1)

Sounded like a decent story but we all have the things we like/dislike in our reading but injecting the authors politics is a showstopper for me and after doing a bit of research and reading a lot of reviews the author's politics was shining through to a LOT of people. His home is in Portland so draw your own conclusions and I understand it won't bother a lot of people, just one of my own rules (and I don't care what side you are on, any politics left/right in my entertainment is just propaganda IMHO).

OK, it is getting worse. I have become accustomed to seeing a book that looks good and then finding I bought it years ago but tonight I saw a book called Along Came a Lady that I apparently bought 6 days ago along with its sequel and I absolutely have no remembrance of it. Guess it must be time to reserve that room at the old folks home :)

Well I finished Not That Duke and maybe it was just me but I found the heroine a bit hard to like with all of her whining about the other woman and an appalling lack of self esteem. I did not find the story that interesting because of it. While the writing itself was exceptional the whole story was one of envy and self doubt. I will have to decide if I can give it 4 Stars since if you remove the pages of "he does not love me" , "I am not pretty enough" and excessive (IMHO) sex you don't even have a good novella.

I gave it 3 Stars

Sometimes I find a book that captivates me for no reason, such is Not That Duke since nothing a real note has happened and I am less than 10% into it but it may just be really good writing. I am curious to see if it continues to be a high-quality novel since I have read almost nothing from Eloisa James but from the list of her books I am amazed that I have not stumbled into at least a few of them

DemetraP wrote: "@Doug: Seriously, bump the Rook up your to be read mountain. It's on my keeper shelf. The world building details alone make the book worth reading."

Obviously somebody told me to buy it years ago and it got lost in the TBR :)

DemetraP wrote: "I reread The Rook. It's such an amazing book. She wakes up on page 1, surrounded by dead people wearing gloves. She checks her coat pockets and finds a letter. "If you're reading this..."

She fin..."

Well it sounded interesting and I had never read it but when I went to the product page I got this "You purchased this item on November 17, 2013."

I got to work on my TBR seriously :)

I read a lot of historical romance these days, I am sure I will move on to another genre eventually but all of these books have a mix of adventure, romance and sex but occasionally one has a really great story that IMHO is ruined by so much sex it is borderline erotica (or maybe not even borderline). Such was Her Ruthless Duke , a good story a bit of adventure but seemingly about 25% of the book was of a sexual nature and only resulted in me fanning through pages to get back to the story. From the reviews it would seem I am in a minority but I would not give this more than 3 Stars at best.

Well I am on yet another historical romance kick and read A Duke of a Time which had a great premise that appealed to me but at the same time the evil father was way overdone and she spent the whole book with a romantic buildup only to rush the ending IMHO. I still enjoyed it and am starting book 2 but it could have been a lot better with a bit more effort 3.5 Stars

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09...

TINNGG wrote: "Ah, I as referring to Darkness Unleashed. Lol. Daughter went through a phase of reading Dean Koontz. I’m not a fan of horror or thrillers so shied away."

Well since I DNF Darkness Unleashed I would have to agree :) I don't care for the pure horror novels of Dean Koontz but he does write some really good thrillers (but the heroine of this story After Death is starting to show some TSTL signs, we shall see LOL)

TINNGG wrote: "You sure about that? I think I gave it 2 stars based on a TSTL Mary Sue for a heroine...."

Well, I just met who I assume is the heroine and I can already see a bit of what you mean but the story and how invested in the story I was after only a few pages is what I was referring to but I will give an honest opinion when I finish.

No romance in his books usually and the premise is that he was in a group of people that were killed but he "came back" and has a few special powers and it appears he will use them to get some justice. That kind of story appeals to me :)