Poughkeepsie (Poughkeepsie Brotherhood, #1) in Basically Books!

Nov 11, 2011 Debra Anastasia rated it it was amazing · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

Return to Poughkeepsie

Return to Poughkeepsie

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Saving Poughkeepsie by Debra Anastasia (image from Shannon Lumetta)
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Releasing November 22nd!

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Nov 20, 2011 Jaime rated it did not like it

I've read several novels recently that began as Twilight fan fiction and have been pleasantly surprised at how good they were. This novel had that same potential - the premise was promising and it sounded interesting - it even had a good trailer. However, the author completely failed in the execution of this story. From the storyline, to the writing, down to the dialogue, this novel was a failure.

As a reader, I want to care about the characters I'm reading about. I want to see and feel what they I've read several novels recently that began as Twilight fan fiction and have been pleasantly surprised at how good they were. This novel had that same potential - the premise was promising and it sounded interesting - it even had a good trailer. However, the author completely failed in the execution of this story. From the storyline, to the writing, down to the dialogue, this novel was a failure.

As a reader, I want to care about the characters I'm reading about. I want to see and feel what they do. This didn't happen. I cared nothing for these characters, felt nothing. I feel like I didn't even get to know them. They were flat and one-dimensional: each character had one distinct personality trait and seemed to have blinders on when it came to exhibiting any other kind of emotion.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****
The rest of my review will contain spoilers so don't read any further if you don't want to know what happens.

The main storyline of the novel just didn't make a whole lot of sense. Because of something that happened in Blake's (the "hero's") past, he thinks he is made out of glass. This has caused some psychological problems and he has difficulty forming relationships. He is also "homeless." I use the homeless word rather loosely because that doesn't make much sense either. He has two foster brothers who do have homes and whom he sees rather frequently - so he isn't too homeless since he is always clean and has clean clothes. Most of the homeless people who live around here don't have such accommodations. Regardless, the "heroine" Livia falls in love with him almost instantly and decides to leave her boyfriend of several years for this crazy, homeless guy.

After the first 50 or so pages however, the novel's focus shifts and the main couple becomes secondary to all the other characters in the book. While the other storylines aren't much more believable, they are certainly more interesting than primary one. This shouldn't be the case. The novel should have focused on our heroes instead of pushing them to the back burner in favor of everything else. Much of what happens between the two of them happens “offstage” and the reader only hears about it through other characters. What’s the first rule of writing? SHOW don’t TELL. Apparantly the author doesn’t follow this school of thought.

I've never read a book with worse dialogue than this book has. Livia's sister, Kyle, and Blake's brother, Beckett, have some of the worst dialogue that I have ever had the displeasure to read. Here's a sample: "Holy fucking dogs! You scared the uterus out of me." Who talks like this? I'll tell you: no one. There is also too much vulgarity in the language. I'm no prude - crude language can be necessary to the story in terms of characterization or plot. However, just adding more curse words to a sentence purely for the sake of adding more curse words to a sentence is not good writing.

I also had a problem with Livia and Klye's father. The author tries to portray him as a stand-up guy; he's a police officer who supposedly will do anything to protect his girls. Yet he allows them to hang out with known criminals (Beckett) with little more than – and I'm paraphrasing here - "Well girls, you know best, just be careful." Sorry, any father worth his weight would not allow this. Livia and Kyle don't seem to mind either that they are friendly with a man who commits murder as easily as breathing. When Beckett shows up at a wedding, not only does Liv’s father not arrest him on the spot for the murder of another character, he convinces the other police officers at the wedding not to arrest him either until after the wedding is over, then procedes to allow him to escape. Huh? Sorry, I don’t buy it.

I wish I would have never wasted my time (or $6.99!) on this one.
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Jun 22, 2012 Maria rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, freebie, published-fan-fiction

Well I have just finished and I am so glad that I chose to read this. I was a bit wary of it as I was aware that it started off in the relms of 'fan fiction'. Before every one shouts at there computer screens I know that there are some great authors of fan fiction out there ( I have read a fair few) but the only other fan fiction to book that I have read ( I think you can all probably guess which one I am talking about) left me pulling my hair out in frustration at the bad writing style. I know ...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Shawna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: rated-3-stars-or-above, adult-drama-romances-comedies, single-books, ebooks-nook, books-i-own

As I've said before I wasn't a big fan of Debra's first book. However this book to me was leaps and bounds better than her first work. To me this had more of a flow to it and didn't jump all over the place. Debra did a fantastic job of weaving the Blake, Cole, and Becketts backgrounds and stories into one book. I loved how we got to read about all of the brothers throughout the book and even some of the supporting characters' backgrounds. Although I was a littled disappointed with Mouse's outcom As I've said before I wasn't a big fan of Debra's first book. However this book to me was leaps and bounds better than her first work. To me this had more of a flow to it and didn't jump all over the place. Debra did a fantastic job of weaving the Blake, Cole, and Becketts backgrounds and stories into one book. I loved how we got to read about all of the brothers throughout the book and even some of the supporting characters' backgrounds. Although I was a littled disappointed with Mouse's outcome. I found myself being attached to him after reading his story.

Onto Blake, Cole, and Beckett. 3 Men who couldn't be anymore different from one another but the bond they have is unbreakable. Blake the gentleman that wear's his heart on his sleeve, Cole the man of faith who is more closed off than Blake, and Beckett the bad boy who will do whatever necessary to protect his family even though it means a life of crime.

All 3 brothers incredible. All 3 grew throughout the entire book and finally found themselves and who there are with the help of Livia, Kyle, and Eve. All 3 strong female characters. Kyle had allot of growing to do to get over her own complexes but was glad she finally got over them to respect herself.

My favorite though was getting to see glimpses of Beckett's soft side when the author would reveal his emotions to us. Those to me were the best parts. Also reading about Blake was rather emotional as well but in a good way because it allows us as the reader to see truly grasp how far he has come throughout the book. Honestly there really isn't a bad thing I could say about this book. I was glad with the endings. Afterall Beckett actually makes you cheer for the murderer. I hope that maybe we get a book about him in the near future with him able to be with his brothers at some point. I don't even care if it's a new leading lady for him. I would like to find out if he changes his ways.

If you haven't read this book I would suggest giving it a go. The way the author wrote from everyone's POV was great and definitely gives you an idea what everyone is about and going through. I didn't feel left in the dark about anyone in the book, it was refreshing. ...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Jessica B rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, contemp-romance, free-or-cheap, jessica-s-2012-challenge, 2012

I am a little bit up in the air about this one. There were parts that I loved and parts that were sort of cringe-worthy for me.

Livia takes the train at the Poughkeepsie train station every morning and seems to have a smile for everyone including a homeless man named Blake. There is much more to Blake than meets the eye. I would say that Blake was probably one of my favourite parts of this entire book. He was such an in depth character and I really felt for him and the problems he was trying to ...more

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