Monday, 4 August 2014

Of Beasts and Grace



                Of Beasts and Grace is a supernatural romance that was a little hard to follow but overall had a good story. Peter and Deborah are fated to be together in this life as they have been in all of their past ones. Theirs is not a love story because they seem to bring out the cruelty in each other. The book goes back and forth between present day and their many past lives which, at times, was a little hard to follow. This book tells the story of two people who are destined to be together, constantly hurting each other, sometimes with extreme violence. I loved the twists and turns because they kept me interested in the story. The two main characters are loathsome and despicable so the only thing I enjoyed about them was when they got hurt. My opinion about this book is mixed. There were parts I enjoyed but I found the past lives and stories told about legends to, at times, take away from the power struggle between Peter and Deborah. The formatting and editing worked well on my ereader. The author explains the cover at the end of the book which I found to be quite beautiful and is what attracted me to the book in the first place. Overall, it is worth checking out.

Friday, 25 July 2014

Tropical Ecstasy



                Tropical Ecstasy is the true story of the author’s return to Brazil after a twenty-five year absence. The book is written in diary form which I really enjoyed because it helped me feel like I was right there on the trip with him. This is not really a story about the culture of Brazil so much as it is about Mr. Weeks’ free-spirited look at his past and present. He visits places he had been to twenty-five years before and writes about the changes over that time. At times I would have liked to have read more about the Brazilian culture and less about Mr. Weeks’ reminiscences but this is the author’s story, not a guide book to Brazil. I originally picked this book to read because of my interest in Brazil as the host of the World Cup but Mr. Weeks opened my eyes to the other wonders, some good and some bad, of this beautiful country. This is a very interesting book that shows a beautiful country through the eyes of someone who writes of the changes that inevitably happen over a quarter of a century. The formatting and editing worked well on my ereader. I wish there had been some pictures but the cover of the book shows a beautiful Brazilian beach to give the reader a taste of the country.

Thursday, 17 July 2014

Kate's Escape from the Billable Hour


                Kate’s Escape from the Billable Hour is a fun chic-lit book that is perfect to put in your beach bag. Kate is a young lawyer trying to work her way to the top. To the detriment of her health and social life, she works a huge amount of billable hours in hopes of getting a large bonus. When that doesn’t work out, she decides, on a whim, to take a trip to Barcelona in hopes of finding an exchange student she fell in love with as a teenager. The story really takes off from there into a hilarious tale of mishaps and mix-ups that eventually result in a happy, yet predictable, ending. The character of Kate is wonderfully written, lots of fun and easy to laugh at because I can see so much of myself in her. The author does an excellent job of writing believable characters and a story that has the reader cheering on Kate as she tries to find love. The editing and formatting worked perfectly on my ereader and the cover was great, very appealing to my eye. This was definitely lots of fun to read.