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Zara Whites has moved just to Maine after witnessing the death of her stepfather. She believes she has a stalker who has also shown up in Maine. There’s something strange about him: he leaves gold dust everywhere he goes. By working with her new friends, she discovers what he wants and how to stop him.

The cover of this book features gold-dusted lips set on a pale face, and dead forest branches creeping up the figure’s neck. I didn’t like the story very much. It’s Twilight redone. As I read, I found the writing to be corny and the plot line to be grating. The plot was so predictable that I could predict the entire story within 30 pages.

I found Zara and the other characters to be superficial, and their conversations to be almost painful to read. Neither of them seem to remember (or know) who they are. I felt it was hard to connect to the characters and their story. This, along with the lack of real depth and meaningful dialogue, left me feeling disappointed.

Primitive urges propel author pixies to target humans, making it hard to empathize with them and painting them as flat antagonists. As a result, it’s difficult to sympathize with them, and they appear one-dimensional villains. It makes Zara’s struggle against them less interesting and meaningful. Though the story contains werewolves, were-eagles, and were-tigers, their significance is not great.

This novel lacks depth in every part - it glosses everything over (except for the meaningless conversations between Zara and her friends). The story lacks a real plot and characters feel hollow and flat. Even the setting is generic and uninteresting.

Overall, this novel is a disappointing read.

Aislinn has been hiding a secret her whole life: She can see fairies, and has resisted attracting their attention for as long as she can remember. Unlike popular belief, fairies are capable of mischief, torture, cruelty, and harm. Despite Aislinn’s best efforts, she found herself stalked by two fairies, Keenan and the Summer King, who had been seeking the lost Queen for decades. Donna, the Winter Girl and ex-lover of Keenan, who always suffered from Keenan’s betrayal. What chance did Aislinn have of being the Summer Queen Keenan was looking for? Which would she choose, a life as a fairy or a mortal life beside her love interest, Seth?

Let’s start with the positives. Marr’s fairy mythology concept intrigued me and I liked the ideas behind it. Although this book isn’t great by any means, her apparent grasp of fae lore and the interesting concept of Summer and Winter Courts makes it worth reading. My favorite parts of the book were the prologue and the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. I appreciate detailed research.

Why did it not work for me? It’s definitely the writing. This book seemed overly simplistic in its sentence structure, but I found the narration itself to be confusing. It was difficult to follow the flow of the sentences within the paragraphs. I didn't feel emotionally attached to any of the characters as well. Aislinn was annoying in the book but got better by the end. Seth was presented as good but had many sexual encounters, and Keenan was uninteresting.

The long-suffering Donia is the only character that holds my interest. It filled the relationship between her and Keenan with conflict and raw emotion, and it is the bright spot in the story for me. Donia’s strength and resilience in the face of adversity make her an interesting protagonist. I root for her and hoping for a happy ending. Her story arc is the most intriguing part of the narrative for me.

The first book of the Wicked Lovely series has potential, but the author had put little effort into making the most of them. In this book, the author shows she did not plan well before beginning the series. The characters are flat, and the world building is weak. As a result, the story lacks depth and does not draw me in.

This series is not something I would discourage anyone from reading. For me, Wicked Lovely didn’t work.

The King of Dreams, the very embodiment of Dream, Morpheus, is back in business. As of right now, he has all his equipment back and all his resources at his disposal. It’s good that he does, since the palace staff, a terrible nightmare, and Fiddler’s Green have disappeared. Obviously, the Dream Lord cannot let the foursome roam free in the human world, so he makes plans to retrieve them.

Although The Sandman has less screen time this time, I have most enjoyed the intrigue of the main story and the thrilling insights into Morpheus’ past.

This 2nd volume follows Rose Walker’s quest to reunite with her estranged little brother, as well as a relationship with a surprise family member. Remember Felicity Kinkaid, the girl who got pregnant and gave birth while Morpheus was imprisoned for 70 years? It turns out the kid was Rose’s mother!

Neil Gaiman writes short stories about cursed love affairs and millennial dates between unlikely friends.

Beware, because Dream is angry, and this is not for the faint of heart.

Now if only I could adjust to the inconsistent illustration style...

King’s love for American cars was a significant part of his early career. Christine reflects on that with themes of youth, maturation, cars, friendship, and terror!

Christine is not my favorite King novel. I would place this well below others like The Stand, The Shining, or The Dark Tower on my personal list. It’s still a pretty enjoyable King novel. Despite rocky patches, it was enough to put me on the King's path I’ve been on ever since.

I think the first issue I had was the length. The 700-page book normally doesn’t bother me, but for Christine, it was overwhelming. For me, there were too many chapters without enough substance. Initially, I was expecting graphic descriptions of twisted events that kept me awake at night. Although I hate saying this, I could not get into some of this book.

A few scenes made my skin crawl, and I flitted through the pages, getting that “Classic King” feeling. When that happens, it’s amazing. Things went quite a few pages later, and it left me hanging. In reality, a possessed car was not as scary as I thought.

After a big explosion, the main girl fused with a doll. While her grandfather had a fan merged into his body after being exposed to a massive, destructive explosion that destroyed the world as we knew it? It’s impossible. How could it be? With plastic, glass, and steel melted into their bodies, how are these people still alive without infection?

The genesis of Baggott’s new world order also intrigued me. I still find this part of the narrative irritating, despite understanding its importance.

The author had an idea that could make a great story. This book takes place in a dystopian future where people live inside the dome under strict rules and regulations. Partridge longs for escape and wants to discover the truth about the world they left behind. In the world outside the Dome, Pressia lives in fear for the mutants that were created by the detonations decades ago. Pure is a story of lies, radiation, friendships, and conspiracies... But what is more important: safety or freedom?

There was the potential for it to be fantastic. It could have been amazing.

The characters are fine, the action scenes are decent, and the author did not water down the cruelty and violence. How poorly the author handles plot twists is something I dislike.The author builds the world poorly, and I don't like it. The villains kill people for no reason at the end, which I dislike.

Even though I didn’t hate this book, I felt let down by Baggott’s plotting.

There is no guarantee that I will continue the series.

It divided the book into three stories.

This first one is based on a Chinese folktale about The Monkey King. Over thousands of years, he mastered all heavenly disciplines. His desire to join the gods is rejected, since he is a monkey.

Another story is about Jin Wang, a boy who moves from Chinatown to a predominantly white suburb of San Francisco. He struggles to fit in at his new school, and he faces many stereotypes. His only friend is Wei Chen.

In the third tale, Danny is a white American boy whose Chinese cousin, Chin Kee, comes to see him every year. His Chinese cousin humiliated Danny after settling in at his new school.

I really like the artwork.There is a lot of insight into cultural identity issues, stereotypes, and privilege in the book, but I didn’t understand how the three stories relate to one another.

There is a twist ending to these seemingly unrelated three tales.

If you’re looking for a quick read, I would recommend this American-born Chinese book.