Duds that I couldn't finish or just skipped to the end

The Winter Sister

 

One dud worth talking about is Megan Collins The Winter Sister. The main characters sister was murdered when they were teenagers and her mom has turned into an alcoholic over it. They seem to be a trashy family. The main character returns to take care of her mom whose dying despite the mom neglecting her after her sis was murdered. None of the characters were very likeable and I can’t even remember if I skipped to the end to finish it or not. All I know is I didn’t finish it. From what I did read though there was too many flashbacks and it took awhile to get to the mystery solving.

The Light Over London

Light Over London by Julia Kelly is one book I skipped to the ending to find out what happened. Believe it or not I enjoyed modern day London better than World War II London. The plot sounded great but it was just dull. Also what really was in World War II flashback the RAF soldier Paul was apparently a bigamist and married to many women and it broke the woman’s heart. She then ends up moving to America and she doesn’t even tell her family and friends “Hey I’m doing great I’m in America and I’m married to someone else.”

The Night Circus

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern has wonderful writing but the story seemed all over the place. I ended up reading on Wikipedia what happened in the end. I’ll try and give her second book The Starless Sea a chance in the future, but that’s because I’ll check it out from the library instead of buying it.

White Chrysanthemum

White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht is a book about Hana a Korean who makes sure her sister isn’t taken by a Japanese soldier during World War II. She’s forced to become a “comfort woman” for Japanese soldiers  which is basically a prostitute. The book wasn’t the worst, but I don’t know if it was necessary to describe in detail the rape that went on. It was very graphic I will warn you. This book I did finish. Also I didn’t like the fact that the sisters weren’t reunited and Hana should have at least wrote to her sister that she was okay.

 

As Old as Time : A Twisted Tale

Tale as Old as Time by Liz Braswell is a Beauty and the Beast Twisted Tale. Some of the flashbacks about how Maurice and Belle’s mother met were interesting but it was such a convoluted plot. Belle’s mother is the enchantress that cursed the beast. Belle touched the rose which ruins the beasts chance of turning back into a human. It was just boring. I skipped to the end they still haven’t found a way to break the curse but they plan to and it just ends on a cliffhanger.

 

Straight on Till Morning : A Twisted Tale

Straight on Till Morning by Liz Braswell is a Peter Pan Twisted Tale. The concept for this twisted tale is, “What if Wendy traveled to Neverland with Captain Hook instead of Peter Pan?” The idea sounded great on paper but was just executed poorly. Wendy had dreams about Neverland and knew Hook wasn’t all that good of a guy to begin with. So why the heck did she trade Peter Pans shadow to him? I get that she didn’t want to be shipped off to Ireland to be a governess but you would think Wendy wouldn’t make such a dumb decision. If Wendy didn’t know who Hook was or if she didn’t know they were enemies I would have found this plot to be more believable. What she did made her seem not only dumb but selfish at the same time. Also 60 something pages in there’s an attempted rape scene by one of the pirates till Hook shoots him and he lets it be known Wendy would be a mother to the pirates. Not to mention the book was hard to follow. Luckily I checked this out from the library instead of buying it. When I reached the halfway mark I said to myself, “This is boring.” And closed the book.  It’s a good thing multiple writers are writing The Twisted Tale books. I did enjoy Braswell’s A Whole New World and Once Upon a Dream but any other of her books after her first two I just didn’t enjoy. The Twisted Tales I do recommend are A Whole New World and Once Upon a Dream by Liz Braswell are her best works. Mirror Mirror by Jen Calonita, Conceal Don’t Feel also by Calonita are excellent. Reflection by Elizabeth Lim wasn’t my favorite but it was entertaining and I can’t wait to see how she does Cinderella in So This is Love.