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I had really high hopes for this one. The description sounded great and I previously read and really enjoyed The Girl From the Well books by Chupeco. I wish I could say I enjoyed Wicked As You Wish but it just never really grabbed me and if I'm being completely honest it ended up feeling like a chore to finish it. This is one of those times that I wish I was more of the DNF camp because it would have saved me weeks of dragging my heels through this book.

 

I'm trying to think of way to adequately describe what this story felt like, and the best I can come up with is it reminded me of leftover surprise. You know that ramshackle meal you throw together when you really need to go shopping or you're feeling kinda lazy and you just grab a bunch of random ingredients that are still good and you have on hand and throw them in a pot with broth or a casserole and call it dinner. This book was like that to me. Insert a handful of fairytale characters, a dash of legends and mythology, a pinch of hot topic social issues, a sprinkle of different cultures, and a side of LGBTQ. Voila, dinner is served! All of these on their own are wonderful ingredients, brought together they can make one incredibly tasty dish, but in this case it just didn't work for me as a cohesive recipe. Nothing quite married or really brought it all together.

 

It ended up feeling like instead of bringing these elements together in a new exciting way pieces of them were just mashed together but never quite fit as a whole. Getting thrown into the fantasy world blind at the beginning was jarring, which could have been ok for me if I understood it more as we went on, but honestly even after the end I'm still confused by it.

 

When the fantasy end falls short a reader can sometimes turn to the characters to carry them through, some cool peeps to get behind, or someone to root for. When I inevitably turned there I also felt like something was lacking. None of these characters were stand out for me.

 

 

Maybe the most interesting to me was 'the Scourge of Buyan' which seemed unfortunately used more to try and make Tala somewhat interesting rather than an intriguing character on its own. Ryker maybe being a younger version of that could have been something but we really didn't see much of him, especially not much beyond the surface level of his high school crushiness that dominated the beginning.

All in all this was just not for me, as much as I wish that wasn't the case. Definitely not something I'd be interested in continuing as a series.

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I received an ARC of this book from SOURCEBOOKS FIRE via Netgalley and this is my honest review.

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Kitty Logan is a disgraced journalist. In her unbridled drive for success she's cut corners and libeled an innocent man. The tabloid television news show she worked for is being sued for a lot of money.

 

The only one who still believes in Kitty is Constance, an editor and Kitty's mentor, but Constance is dying.

 

When Kitty asks Constance what story she regrets not writing, Constance tells her to fetch a file folder from her office. In the file is a list of one hundred names and nothing else. Before Constance can explain the importance of these names or how they're related she dies.

 

Partly because Kitty sees this as an opportunity to salvage her career and partly as a tribute to her late friend she decides to investigate these names and see if she can find and write the story that links them.

 

She can't. Or at least she hadn't been able to forty percent into the novel.

 

Rather than the unfolding of a promising plot premise the reader is presented with Kitty's very ordinary life, with the exception of excrement being smeared on her front door numerous times from irate readers and supporters of the man she libeled.

 

After interviewing a half dozen or so people on Constance' list and getting nowhere Kitty's getting frustrated and so was I.

 

At the beginning I had stretch my suspension of disbelieve to include the improbable plot point the the story hangs on - that a tabloid news show would allow a story to air that accuses a high school teacher of sexual misconduct with a student and fathering her child without solid evidence, like maybe DNA testing. I mean, do they have a death wish?

 

Being a journalist myself I know this would never be allowed to happen. If the reporter was incompetent enough to submit such an incendiary story without irrefutable evidence it would have been killed by the news editor, and for sure never got past the producer.

 

However, besides this grievous lack of research of the author's part I finally abandoned the novel because the story was boring and the writing mediocre.

 

Six names down, ninety-four to go? I don't think so.

 

 

 

 

 
  

Lovely concept. Always enjoy Cecelia Ahern's books and this was no exception.

A journalist finds a list of 100 names, which is all the info she has on her mentor's last story. The changes to her and how she finds out the purpose of the list is really sweet.

I went into One Hundred Names expecting a mystery, but instead I got a beautifully written story about the power of.human spirit. The main character, Kitty Logan, made a huge professional mistake and as a result, has become a pariah in the journalism world. In the aftermath, she begins to see how her career priorities had changed enough that she would allow herself to make such a big mistake. Before she dies, Constance who is her mentor and friend, gives her the story of a life time. Kitty just has to figure out what that story is.

I liked this concept. A list of one hundred seemingly random people that have some connection to each other. In the end, I absolutely loved what the connection turned out to be as it was something completely unexpected for me, but so perfect for Kitty. (No, I'm not telling!) The people that Kitty meets were all interesting in their own way. What Kitty realizes along the way is that even the most boring person has a story to tell. Everyone has a story and if you only take the time to listen to one of them, you might be surprised at what you hear.

I'm glad I got to go on this journey with Kitty. This book is a great read and one I totally recommend! This is the first book that I have read by this author. For some reason she never made it into my TBR pile. But I know after reading this one, I'll be adding more of hers to the ever growing pile!

Things are not going well for Kitty Logan. The story that was supposed to make her career has turned into a scandal and her beloved mentor is dying. When her friend passes away, she leaves Kitty with a mission: to write the story she always wanted to write. Unfortunately, all Kitty has to go on is a list of one hundred names. She’s on a tight deadline and isn’t sure she’ll even be able to find the right people, much less meet all of them and find out what connects them. Solving this puzzle for her mentor is a challenge, but one which might just help Kitty solve some problems of her own.

Before reading One Hundred Names, I already knew I loved Cecelia Ahern, having had wonderful experiences with both The Book of Tomorrow and The Time of My Life. This book lived up to all the expectations those books had created. What gets me started reading each book by Ahern is the fascinating premise. It’s hard not to get excited about a book with a great hook! Although in this case the big reveal hinted at by the description was a bit predictable, I didn’t feel like that took away from the novelty and beauty of the idea. It was a great way to start a fun, madcap adventure I was swept away by. More importantly, it introduced the reason I keep reading each book by Ahern – the brilliant characters.

In each book I’ve read, the main character grows as a person. This is something I really enjoy in a book. In fact, I think this is the reason a slightly predictable plot can be completely wonderful. Although I can relax, knowing the Ahern is going to leave me with warm fuzzy feelings, the main character still has to work for it. I also fell in love with the many secondary characters, learning just enough about their inner workings to be invested in their stories too. Aside from the starting point of each of Ahern’s books, much of what is portrayed within is simply ordinary life. This could be boring, but Ahern uses her exciting premises and touching writing to highlight the beauty and wonder that lurk in ordinary events. Her books could also easily be too predictable, too cliched, too orchestrated. However, the unique premise of each book saves them from cliche and the character growth allows the predictability to turn her books into comfort reads, without taking away from the plot. All of this makes Ahern’s books some of my favorite examples of a happy story done right.

This review first published on Doing Dewey.