THE SECRET SISTERHOOD OF HEARTBREAKERS by Lynn Weingarten Book Review
Series: The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers, #1
Publication Date: December 27th 2011 by HarperTeen
Rating:  – Poor

Book Summary: If there’s an upside to having your heart broken, it’s this: A broken heart makes you brave.

The first day of sophomore year doesn’t go the way Lucy planned. After a summer apart from her boyfriend, she’s ready to greet him with a special surprise and instead gets a shocking one in return: He’s breaking up with her. Beyond devastated, Lucy has no idea how she’s going to make it through homeroom, let alone the rest of her life.

Enter three stunning girls with the unnatural ability to attract boys and an offer Lucy can’t refuse: They can heal her heart in an instant. And then she’ll be one of them—a member of a sisterhood that is impervious to heartbreak and has access to magic distilled from the tears of brokenhearted boys. But to gain their power, Lucy must get a guy to fall in love with her the old-fashioned way, and then break his heart in the next seven days.

While the sisterhood may need another Heartbreaker, Lucy’s only desire is to get her ex back. But how far is she willing to go, and who is she willing to cross to get what she wants?

The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers by Lynn Weingarten Book Review Overview:

• Like/hate relationship with THE SECRET SISTERHOOD OF HEARTBREAKERS
• Love the writing style, hate the premise
• Not a book I would recommend to teens

THE SECRET SISTERHOOD OF HEARTBREAKERS by Lynn Weingarten requires readers to suspend their disbelief. The novel is contemporary sprinkled with a dash of magic.

I have a like/hate relationship with THE SECRET SISTERHOOD OF HEARTBREAKERS. I knew that coming in I would not like any of the characters. They’re cruel and insanely bitchy, but this is one of those books that I was willing to give the characters a chance to make it up to me. They didn’t.

Lucy, the protagonist, is a little naive and a little obsessed with her ex-boyfriend. The moment we are introduced to Alex, I knew that he is Bad News. The boy is clearly not in love with Lucy, but she doesn’t see that. He wasn’t worth all the effort, and it was clearly a lost cause. But Lucy is determined to win him back, so she turns a blind eye against his flaws for the majority of the book. Worst of all, she’s a terrible best friend to Tristan. While he is always there for her in the book, Lucy is quick to abandon him when Olivia and her friends take her in. Lucy doesn’t really feel remorse towards how badly she treated Tristan – disappointing because he was one of the very few likeable characters in the novel.

The mission of the Sisterhood is pretty vindictive and cruel. This book is basically teaching teenagers that boys are their playthings. They are there for you to flirt and date, but when you get tired of them, they are disposable. Um, what the hell? I’m sorry, but just because a boy breaks your heart, it does not mean that it gives you the right to break the heart of others for fun. Weingarten attempts to give her characters a conscience, but it fails hard. I don’t buy it at all that the characters have a bit of compassion in them.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed Weingarten’s writing style – so much that I ended up reading this book in one sitting. I think partially that this has to do with the fact that I wanted to know if the characters were going to disappoint me. I had to know, and I couldn’t put the book down. THE SECRET SISTERHOOD OF HEARTBREAKERS is a breezy read.

Despite being a quick and breezy read, THE SECRET SISTERHOOD OF HEARTBREAKERS by Lynn Weingarten is not the kind of book I would recommend. In fact, I am making quite sure that my younger cousins stay far away from this book. And to think that this is the first in a series…

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Permalink Book Review, Two Stars - Audience: Young Adult, Author: Lynne Weingarten, Book: The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers, Genre: Contemporary, Publisher: HarperTeen, Series: The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers | 1078 words

DESPERATE DUCHESSES by Eloisa James
Series: Desperate Duchesses, #1
Publication Date: May 29th 2007 by Avon

Summary: “Welcome to a world of reckless sensuality and glittering sophistication…of dangerously handsome gentlemen and young ladies longing to gain a title . . . of games played for high stakes, including–on occasion–a lady’s virtue.”

A marquess’s sheltered only daughter, Lady Roberta St. Giles falls in love with a man she glimpses across a crowded ballroom: a duke, a game player of consummate skill, a notorious rakehell who shows no interest in marriage–until he lays eyes on Roberta.

Yet the Earl of Gryffyn knows too well that the price required to gain a coronet is often too high. Damon Reeve, the earl, is determined to protect the exquisite Roberta from chasing after the wrong destiny.

Can Damon entice her into a high-stakes game of his own, even if his heart is likely to be lost in the venture?

Heroine: Roberta is really not that likeable. First of all, she claims instalove after a not so romantic first encounter. I guess I can throw her a bone and say she’s a very determined young woman, but she really needs to get her senses straight and go for the right target.

Hero: The Earl of Gryffyn is the “true” hero of DESPERATE DUCHESSES by Eloisa James but I guess it would be hard to figure this out if it weren’t for the book summary. I’m a sucker for Daddys with Cute Little Kids and the Earl of Gryffyn definitely falls under this category. It’s not his fault that he had such a sucky plotline. He would have been a more dashing hero if the circumstances had been different and the heroine had been more interesting and less naive.

Supporting Cast: I think the fact that I enjoyed the supporting characters and the subplot a lot more tells a great deal about how much I enjoyed Desperate Duchesses by Eloisa James. I much rather would have liked to just focus on Jemma and the Duke of Beaumont but apparently, that’s another book! I don’t know why they played such a big part then, because it ended up just being a really big teaser of a book to come.

Plot: The plotting of DESPERATE DUCHESSES by Eloisa James is unfortunately somewhat a mess. Really, I had a hard time figuring out who the true star of this little soap opera was. There were subplots aplenty, and sadly, the least interesting one ended up being the main highlight of DESPERATE DUCHESSES.

Romance: The Duke of Villiers is such an anti-hero that there really is no romantic tension. There’s not even a pseudo love triangle. So obviously when you are introduced to the Earl of Gryffyn, there is a clear winner already. I guess they have banter and good chemistry, but nothing mind-blowing and quite memorable enough to make a lasting impression.

Love Potion Strength:

-  Poor

I guess every author has their not-so-great book. DESPERATE DUCHESSES by Eloisa James is not my favorite work by this author. Though disappointing, I am certainly not discouraged to pick up more books by her.

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Permalink Book Review, Two Stars - Amortentia Reviews, Audience: Adult, Author: Eloisa James, Book: Desperate Duchesses, Genre: Historical romance, Publisher: Avon, Series: Desperate Duchesses | 665 words

SHADOWS by Ilsa J. Bick Book Review
Series: Ashes, #2
Publication Date: September 25th 2012 by EgmontUSA
Rating: – Poor |

Book Summary: The Apocalypse does not end.
The Changed will grow in numbers.
The Spared may not survive.

Even before the EMPs brought down the world, Alex was on the run from the demons of her past and the monster living in her head. After the world was gone, she thought Rule was a sanctuary for her and those she’d come to love.

But she was wrong.

Now she’s in the fight of her life against the adults who would use her, the survivors who don’t trust her, and the Changed who would eat her alive.

Welcome to Shadows, the second book in the haunting apocalyptic Ashes Trilogy: where no one is safe and humans may be the worst of the monsters.

Shadows by Ilsa J. Bick Book Review Overview:

• A little confusing, must be read right after Ashes
• Ilsa J. Bick is a talented writer who can write awesome and really gruesome scenes
• Unfortunately, this failed to match up to my expectations and I’m not compelled to finish the series

Unfortunately, SHADOWS by Ilsa J. Bick is not a book that you can just pick up on a whim. Ashes, the first book in the trilogy, cannot be a book you read in the distant past. SHADOWS by Ilsa J. Bick does pick up where Ashes finished, but the book needs to be fresh in your memory, or you’ll be completely lost like I was. Bick does very little to aid readers in remembering what exactly happened in the first book. For the first 100 pages, I wasn’t sure what was going on and I needed a dire refresher on who’s who.

I’m surprised that I managed to read this whopping monster of over 500 pages because I did not feel like I was ever hooked into one of the many meandering plots. My determination to read through SHADOWS by Ilsa J. Bick had more to do with the fact that I wanted to remember what happened in the first book. The problem with SHADOWS is the multi-narrative approach. In the end, there were just too many things going on, but not enough things that made me care about what was happening.

Despite my qualms, I do have to admit that Bick is still one talented writer. Once or twice, I’ve had to stop to admire her vividly gruesome descriptions. Furthermore, Bick’s world is a little different from zombie novels out there because of the fact that they are not exactly dead, but Changed. Changed people who have an appetite for human flesh. It takes a little bit of readjusting to get used to this thought, but this detail sets the Ashes trilogy apart from others.

The ending failed to leave me satisfied, which is such a bummer. I remember finishing Ashes with the thought, OMG BOOK TWO NOW PLEASE, only to be disappointed to hear that the next one would not be out for an entire year. Finishing up SHADOWS by Ilsa J. Bick, my final thoughts were more along the lines of, Wow, I’m glad that’s over and done with.

Unfortunately, SHADOWS by Ilsa J. Bick just fell under the category of sequels that didn’t live up to the first. While SHADOWS by Ilsa J. Bick is not the worst book ever, it didn’t make me excited about the series anymore. This might just call for a series break-up.

Why I’m Biased: I was such a big fan of Ashes. SHADOWS by Ilsa J. Bick was one of the few ARCs that I really wanted my hands on at BEA.

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Permalink Book Review, Two Stars - Audience: Young Adult, Author: Ilsa J Bick, Book: Shadows, Borrow It, Genre: Science Fiction, Genre: Zombie, Series: Ashes | 1093 words