Archive for One Star
THE IVY by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur Book Review
Series: The Ivy, #1
Publication Date: August 31st 2010 by Greenwillow Books
Rating: 
– Dreadful
Book Summary: Congratulations! You have been admitted to the most prestigious university in the world. Now what are you going to do?
Callie Andrews may not have money or connections or the right clothes, and she may have way too many complications in her love life, what with
Gregory
the guy she loves to hate …Evan
the guy she’d love to forget …Clint
the guy she’d love to love …and Matt
the guy she really should love …all vying for her attention.
But she has three fantastic roommates (best friends or her worst nightmare?) and a wholesome California-girl reputation (oops) and brains and beauty and big, big dreams.
Will it be enough to help her survive freshman year at Harvard?
The Ivy by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur Book Review Overview:
- Unlikeable cast of characters
- Too much unbelievable (not in a good way) drama that made it seem so high school
- I can’t think of one positive thing to say about The Ivy
I don’t know how I managed to read THE IVY by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur in its entirety when I clearly did not enjoy it. Riddled with caricatures and cliches, THE IVY by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur is far from your typical college experience.
There is no debating the fact that THE IVY by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur is young adult, despite the fact that the story takes place in college. Why? Because it’s like the characters never left high school. THE IVY is centered around gossip, drama, and hooking up. There’s really no depth to the college setting – except that it gave the authors more excuses to include sex, alcohol, and drugs.
THE IVY by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur lacks any likeable characters. The characters are obnoxious and over-exaggerated caricatures. The protagonist, Callie, is very difficult to like because her moral compass is so way off. She’s quite over-dramatic and self-centered. Her character changes for the worst, and by the end of the book, I loathed her. Her friends aren’t any better. They are annoying and they engage in ridiculous shenanigans.
For all the drama crammed into one book, you would think that the characters had never left high school. The fact that all of this can happen to one group of friends is also unrealistic. The gossip and drama are never-ending. Most of the time, I think their problems are so juvenile that it makes it so hard to believe that these people would actually be my age.
You know I didn’t like a book when I can’t think of one good thing to highlight in a review. THE IVY by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur is not worth your time.
About the Author
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Lauren Kunze grew up in Piedmont, California and attended Harvard University where she majored in English literature and minored in neurobiology. After graduation, she deferred a masters program at the University of Oxford in order to finish her first novel, The Ivy, which was conceptualized in collaboration with best friend and former college roommate Rina Onur. Now Lauren writes full-time, and is currently working on subsequent novels in The Ivy Series. She is twenty-five years old.
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Book Review, One Star - Audience: Young Adult, Author: Lauren Kunze, Author: Rina Onur, Book: The Ivy, Genre: Contemporary, Publisher: Greenwillow Books, Series: The Ivy | 
840 words
ONCE A COWBOY by Linda Warren
Publication Date: February 13th 2007 by Harlequin Books
Summary: Brodie Hayes is a former rodeo star, now a rancher–a cowboy, through and through. But when he finds out some shocking news about the circumstances of his birth, he begins to question his identity. Luckily, private investigator Alexandra Donovan is there to help him find the truth about who he is. Along the way, he discovers that even a man who thought he’d be alone for the rest of his life can fall in love.
For Brodie, love was something you did once–and for always. But is Alex the type of woman who can take on a stubborn man like him? Because there’s one thing about him that will never change, no matter what they find out about his past–once a cowboy, always a cowboy.
Heroine: I didn’t really find anything relatable with Alex. She wasn’t much fun to read to be honest.
Hero: I usually do not have a problem with the age of the love interest but for me, Brodie Hayes was a bit too old. Yeah he’s forty, and I guess that’s not really old. You can blame it on my young parents, but the fact that Brodie is older than my dad … ick. Not sexy.
Supporting Cast: Alex’s eccentric grandmother, Naddy, was quite memorable, but no one else stood out for me.
Plot: I couldn’t follow the premise of the novel. Infants switched at birth, and now Brodie Hayes finds out he’s not who he thinks he is … Adoption, kidnapping, death … I didn’t understand how the circumstances could have been romantic.
Romance: So many elements of this book just seemed so wrong to me. No matter how many times Alex tries to justify exactly how she falls in love with this cowboy, I’d have to side with her father Buck in this case. She should not have gotten involved with someone who was part of a case as a private investigator.
Love Potion Strength:
– Troll
A bit disappointing for my first cowboy romance, but I did get this for free on my nook. I’m willing to try other cowboy novels in the future though, but I’m now hesitant about Harlequin American Romances.
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Book Review, One Star - Amortentia Reviews, Audience: Adult, Author: Linda Warren, Book: Once A Cowboy, Genre: Contemporary, Genre: Romance, Publisher: Harlequin | 506 words
- Action Packed
- Borrow It
- Hahaha Funny
- Keeps You Guessing
- Heartwarmer
- Makes You Think
- Masterful World-Building
- Must Buy
- Page-Turner
- Poetic Prose
- Romantic Read
- Tear-Jerker
