I think after this I am pretty much done with the Mischief Bay series. This book really aggravated me since I think Mallery wants her cake (write a contemporary romance) but then she there feels like there is very little romance and people just running around acting like assholes for most of the book until the very end. 

"A Million Little Pieces" follows two characters who should be familiar to readers from the first book, Jen and her mother Pam from "The Girls of Mischief Bay." It's been about 2 years since that first book. Jen was pregnant in the first book and Pam was dealing with being widowed. Now two years on, Jen is a mess freaking out that her young son is not talking. Pam has gone on with her life and is happy, but a potential romance has her thinking if she is ready to be alone forever. The third person this book follows is Jen's best friend Zoe. I tried to like Zoe, but I was over her after Mallery took a real bad direction with her story-line.

The characters felt very flat in this one. It was hard to feel sympathy towards Jen since she was acting shrill and insane through most of the book. Someone mentioned post-partum depression and I wish that more of the characters pushed her on talking to a doctor. Instead her mother and Zoe hold an intervention and even I was all "you both suck so hard right now." I also cringed when Zoe's mother is all you need to have sex with your husband more cause who cares if you are barely sleeping and freaking out about your son. I felt like at times I had time traveled back to the 60s with some of the comments Pam was making.

Pam was okay at first, I just don't care about her weird dog. She also turns into an uber asshole when a story-line involving Zoe and her son comes about. I mean...she had good points, she just went about it the wrong way. I was honestly team no one during this whole thing.

Zoe. Nope. I just could not with her entire ludicrous story-line. 

The writing was okay, I just found myself bored. Flip flopping between the three women was not done very well. I found myself missing the other characters from the first two books more. 

The setting of Mischief Bay is a good one. I just wish that Mallery was doing more with it. I don't know if it would help to age down or up the characters or what. Or maybe just focus on one person one story-line. Nothing really gelled here for me in this one. 

This book and the controversy circus surrounding it are about a decade old, so in case you don't remember: this book, marketed as a non-fiction account of James Frey's recovery from addiction, rocketed to success after it was chosen for Oprah's Book club. The Smoking Gun later revealed Frey to be a giant fraud-- his story was fabricated, and in fact, he'd shopped it around as fiction without any takers. He then retooled it and sold it as a memoir. When Oprah realized she'd been had, she brought Frey back on her show for a critical takedown.

I've always been a bit curious, so I finally pulled this out of my TBR stack. In a word, it's worthless. Having several close friends who have struggled with and overcome drug abuse and addiction, I found this to be a sensationalist stray from reality, one that does a disservice to the ruthlessly hard work of recovery. Furthermore, it was terribly written and poorly edited. I'm a little bit amazed that people believed it was non-fiction (though many reporters questioned its veracity at the time of its publication). 

James Frey has gone on to found a notoriously exploitative publishing company, Full Fathom Five, and in general seems to continue to exist as a blight on literary culture.

0/0: would not recommend. 

I would post a review here, but due to BL still not having really well working Spoiler Tags I would recommend people check out my review at my blog: 

http://twirlingbookprincess.com/2015/07/dnf-review-for-into-a-million-pieces/

The idea of this being a Young Adult book about twin succubi really caught my attention, and I was just as interested in the story as I was in how she did it. You see, I love the Young Adult genre, but I get a little miffed when I'm reading something that is CLEARLY not appropriate for young adults. I know, I know - young adults are also people in their early 20s - but there are a lot of teenagers that read this genre and, well, I think that if you want to add a lot of sex and stuff to your book, you might as well just label it adult.

Not only was this a clean read, but it was really well written and kept me hooked from page one all the way to the end. The story itself was very interesting. And different - to be honest, I don't think I've ever run across a fantasy about a succubus, and I read a lot of fantasies. It also kept me guessing, which is something that I look for in books that I read - I want to be surprised and have unexpected things thrown at me, and this author definitely had a few cards up her sleeve.

The characters are great. I felt a connection with both Allison and Jade, but I especially related to Allison. Several of the other characters reminded me of people that I knew when I was growing up, some good and some bad. What was really great about the characters was, after seeing the way they interacted with Allison and/or Jade, you really understood who they were.

If you are looking for a young adult fantasy with a DIFFERENT paranormal twist, this is one you should take a look at. And even better - there's a sequel to this book coming soon. :)

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Please remember that this review is my opinion based on my personal impressions of the book.

*Book source ~ A review copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

17-yr-old twins Allison and Jade McKready were born with a curse. They are each a succubus, but they approach the problem in very different ways. Allison shuns attention and Jade courts it. Jade says that she can stay in control, but they both know that their mother killed herself because she fell off the wagon she got on after she killed her husband on their wedding night. Jade doesn’t think it’s wrong to take a few kisses here and there, but Allison knows it’s only a matter of time before guys start to put together that they’re sick for a few days after being with Jade and start coming to bad conclusions. When Jade’s social life implodes and tragedy strikes, Allison’s life is turned upside down and she’s left with more questions than answers. Allison turns to her friend Ren Fisher for comfort and suddenly she understands more about Jade and their curse than she ever did. Allison has hard choices to make, but will they be the right ones?

This is an interesting take on the succubus life. The few books I’ve read with a succubus in them have been about adults. This is told from a YA perspective and how Allison doesn’t want to end up like the women of her line, but she also yearns for love. How to have love and not kill your lover? What a dilemma! How Jade and Allison go about dealing with their curse in very different ways is thought-provoking and the writing is very good. There is a tendency to have a bit too much mundaneness in the plot and not as much action, so it tends to drag a bit in spots.  Other than that, this is a very well-written YA coming-to-terms tale seasoned with paranormal and sprinkled with romance.