September Buddy Read - Run to Ground (Jamie (TheRebelliousReader), Martha)

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

September Buddy Read

[Martha]

Hello Jamie,

This is my very first buddy read, so you may have to help me walk through this.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader)]

Hi, Martha! I don't mind walking you through this. Buddy reads are a lot of fun. So I browsed through your want to read list and we have a few books in common.







I have all of these so it just depends what you're in the mood to read. Any of them will be fine with me. :) Or feel free to look through my To Read shelf.

[Martha]

Hi Jamie, I narrowed it down to 2 books and

I did take a peek at your to read shelf and saw a lot of books that looked interesting, but these were the 2 that stood out the most.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader)]

Awesome, this is a hard decision because they both look interesting but I'm gonna go with . I'm in the mood for some romantic suspense. When do you wanna start?

[Martha]

I was really leaning towards that one. Anytime after September 2nd works for me.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader)]

Great. How about the 4th? And we can go either by reading up to a certain chapter and then come back and discuss or just read it and discuss when we have things we want to talk about. Either way works for me.

[Martha]

The 4th works for me. How about we discuss every 3 or 4 chapters and then discuss, so everything's still fresh in our minds.

If that's alright with you.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader)]

That works for me. Can't wait to start reading. :)

[Martha]

Neither can I

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader)]

So I just made it to chapter 5 and it's okay so far. I don't really like the time jumps, they seem unnecessary and a bit confusing. I do like Jules though and how much she loves her younger siblings.

[Martha]

I just finished chapter 5 and I agree that's it's not to bad so far and that the time jumps are really unnecessary. I believe all the time skips could have been summed up into short flashback scenes written in the chapters. I'm still uncertain on my thoughts about Jules and Theo.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader)]

I definitely agree the time skips should just be flashback scenes because this constant jumping around is confusing. I'm on chapter 12 and it's still okay but I don't really like Theo. I empathize with him and understand he's hurting from his loss but he's not very likable. What do you think of him so far?

[Martha]

I just finished chapter 13 and I'm still finding it rather ehh, I think the only character I'm actually liking right now is Vinny the dog, so far I'm finding that he's the most believable and fleshed out character. I'm not really all that fond of Theo like I get it that he's still getting over his friend's death, but he doesn't seem all that thought out and like a random character that was just thrown together while she was writing.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader)]

The dog is actually the best part of this so far. LOL. How sad is that? Out of this big cast of human characters the dog is the standout. None of the characters feel that fleshed out to me and I'm having so much trouble connecting with them.

I also feel like there's nothing happening except for Jules and Theo starting to have feelings for each other which is reckless on her part considering she's on the run with her siblings. Besides the shooting that happened there really isn't any action going on.

[Martha]

LOL. Pretty sad and to think this is the first book of the series, I'm scared to look at the rest of the series. Your not the only one who's having trouble connecting to any of the characters.

If her siblings had it so bad with their parents then they sure as hell don't act like it, in fact, it's almost like Jules is being set up. There was no action in the shooting, it doesn't even give you any idea as to who the target really was.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader)]

Yeah, the kids seem pretty normal to me. And I wish we knew just a tiny bit of what was going on with them. Was it negligence? Actual physical abuse? I need answers.

And the shooting was random and I didn't even realize that we don't even know who the true target was. I don't think this series is going to be for me. Unless the ending half of this one is amazing (which at this point I'm seriously doubting) I don't think I'm going to be continuing on.

[Martha]

I have the same thoughts, the author and Jules hasn't said anything about what kind of abuse it was (physical or mental) Its driving me crazy.

If it wasn't for you reading this with me I'd probably have given up after the 4th chapter. I know I'm not going to finish this series, even if it has an amazing ending, I won't even look at the rest of the series.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader)]

Same. If we weren't buddy reading this I would've just put this to the side. Now I'm wishing I would've picked instead. Lol. This book is just so ridiculously dull. I'm on chapter 17 and the characters are just going through the motion and it's not interesting in the slightest.

I also don't understand why Hugh is now all of a sudden wanting to do a background check on Jules??? She didn't do anything suspicious around him that I can remember for him to feel like she's running from something and needs to be checked out. That scene was so random to me. I'm trying to just power through this book but I keep losing interest and going and doing other things.

[Martha]

Yeah, or even sounded good as well. Lol. It's really not all that interesting since I started reading chapter 17 I've started skim reading just so I could finish it.

I didn't notice anything that would make him want to do a background check. I can understand that he wants to look out for Theo, but it's really random the way she wrote it in and it doesn't really fit in with the story in the slightest. I have been flipping between reading it and working on other stuff.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader)]

So I finished (a*k*a skimmed the hell out of) this book and I honestly couldn't tell you one interesting thing that happened. Not one thing. Talk about a letdown. Viggy the dog was the highlight of this entire book and since the next book isn't about him I'm not interested.

[Martha]

I finished it about an hour after my last post and I skimmed it right to the end. I think it would have been a good book if the author had taken the time to actually plot everything out and really put some effort when developing the characters.

The plot its self-was rushed and the ending really didn't make a whole lot of sense to me and seemed just as rushed as the rest of the book. I'm not continuing onto the next book.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader)]

I completely agree. The ending feels like the author was setting up for the next book but she went about it all wrong because nothing feels resolved. This had so much potential to be good but like you said, nothing was developed or plotted all the way through and it shows.

And it's not even a bad book, it's just boring and plot and character wise all over the place. I can take 'bad' books but books like this frustrate me even more for some reason.

[Martha]

As an animator writer, I'm a strong believer that everything needs to be well developed and set up just right for everything to be resolved and ready for the next book.

It's not, it would be if she took the extra time to fix and spread everything out properly. It's extremely boring, nothing seems to be happening and her small actions scenes are really lacking. I can only stand slightly 'bad' books to a point after that I call it quits.