STEAMPUNK ROMANCE: Gas Light (Mystery Su...

First part of a serial. Rosalie is determined to create machines, making them work. Her father allows her to tinker but rather she wouldn't. He hires Edmund to care for her while he is away. Edmund does that until the unexpected happens, blowing apart Rosalie's room and world. Edmund and Rosalie give into their feelings and they promise to get revenge together. I loved Rosalie's determination to do what pleases her, not what others expect. Edmund supports her to the end.

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

Reasons to read The Truth Commission

1. The Writing Style. This book is written in a fun, witty style that will make it impossible to stop reading (unless you just happen to have exams pop up… like I did). What makes this book so much fun to read is the fact that it’s written as a non-fiction novel, where the main character is telling her story to the readers. I always enjoy reading a book structured like that because it helps forge a strong connection between the reader and the main character (IMO). It helps you get to know them better and through "the main character's" writing, their characteristics shine through. That was definitely the case in this book and the footnotes made it all the more charming.

2. THE FOOTNOTES. Holy crap those footnotes were SO MUCH FUN TO READ. That is all I have to say.

3. The Main Character. Normandy is one of the most relateable main characters ever and I LOVED reading her story. I am not even sure what exactly makes her so fun to read about. In part, it’s probably the writing style but I also think it's just her. She is so real. She is in denial about her feelings about a certain someone, she can also be envious of other people without even acknowledging the fact she is envious but she is also a great friend and person. She is someone who internalizes her feelings but given the way she grew up with a speshul snowflake sister, I am not surprised. I loved watching Normandy find her inner strength and watching her shine like the awesome human she is.

4. The Friendships. The relationships in this novel are complex but the bond between Normandy and her friends is great. That isn’t to say they never had any sort of drama but its understandable drama because no friendship is perfect! And none of the individuals within this group are. What is also awesome is the people they meet along their journey to seek the truth and the bonds they forge with other people.

5. The Plot. The way things unfold in the book is brilliant. It adds a layer of mystery to book and if you know me, you know how I love my mystery. I also just love how people and things come together in this book.

Other awesome things include: (some) Diversity, deals with slut-shaming (to a certain degree), lack of ANNOYING drama.

A Few Criticisms

1. Kiera (AKA Norm’s older, famous sister). Kiera was a character with potential and I feel like that potential remained unrealized. Maybe I just kept on wanting something more positive between her and Norm and when things turned out the way they did, I ended up feeling disappointed.

2. Norm's family. Norm’s parents aren’t the worst parents in town but they aren’t winning any awards either. Their passiveness just rubbed me the wrong way and I wish they were able to stand up for themselves but also for Norm. I would like to say that I do like how things ended with Norm and her dad but I still wanted more.

3. I cannot say much else (because spoilers)but the way rape was used in the novel bothered me. It isn’t used in a really horrible or even realllly offensive, but it just doesn’t work for me as a reader and left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It wasn’t enough to ruin the book for me, but I do think the issue could have been handled differently.

Verdict: This is a book I’d definitely recommend. There is only one thing that really bothered me but I was still able to enjoy the book and hopefully you will too since it is so much.

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

I’d like to start off by saying that if you’re interested in this book because you loved Forbidden you might want to give it a pass. I don’t actually say this with any authority since I haven’t actually read the book but from the reviews I’ve read, I’d imagine that this book is nowhere near the same level as Forbidden. 

That said, I adored the book. It wasn’t mind blowing, it wasn’t AMAHZING but at the same time, it was an emotional read and it kept me up for a couple minutes. You might imagine that is not a lot but I am usually someone who’d rather daydream before going to bed so the fact that I kept on coming back to this book was a big deal for me.

The characters are what take the cake in this book. The author makes them realistically flawed but at the same time they aren’t horrible people. They are lovable even if you want to shake them from time to time.

There is a good chance Jackie will bother you but she didn’t bother me. I loved that she wasn’t all, ‘we love each other, let’s do this’. She had doubts. She knows her relationship with her cousin isn’t going to be viewed the way she wished it could be viewed. The way society feels affects her. She doesn’t want to be the one that sticks out like a sore thumb because of who she loves. As a result, she ends up not realizing the extent of her feelings for Marcus and ends up pushing him away. I love that she actually realizes how silly she is being in a lot of the cases. That’s what makes her a likeable character. This is a self-discovery process and it takes her a while to realize what it is she wants and it takes her even longer to actually do something about it but then again, no one said that change would happen in a day.

Marcus is just as wonderful. He is a perpetually sweet guy but at the same time, he is tired of not being sure how Jackie feels about him and when they call the quits, he is a jerk. We know that he loves her but at the same time; he does immature things because he is heartbroken. Maybe subconsciously, he does want to hurt her, the same way she hurt him. It did make me want to shake him but considering the kind of guy he is, it made sense that he would lash out this way.

My favorite secondary character was hands down Will.The author could have easily made him into the douchy guy that would make the female lead realize how much she loved Marcus but the author didn’t do that. Instead she let Will be a genuinely nice guy, appearances aside. She let the two be friends and she let Will be the friend she really needed at that point of time.

All these wonderful things said; I am not so sure how I feel about the romance. It’s emotional and angsty and amazing but at the same time, I was discomforted by it. It was that odd mix of where I was cheering for them but at the same time, I wasn’t entirely comfortable with their relationship. In this case though, I don’t think it would entirely be possible to write a romance that would be a 100% comfortable.

The mystery was definitely a nice addition to the story but don’t go into this book thinking it’s going to be a mystery. It’s not. It’s still primarily a contemporary romance.

That isn’t to say that the mystery wasn’t good, the little there was. It just wasn’t as well developed as it could have been considering how well the author lay the foundations.

I wish I could talk about the ending but me saying anything would give away what happens and I think it’s for you to find out what becomes of the two and whether they get the HEA they want or if they end up going their separate ways.

I’d definitely recommend this to anyone looking for an intense, emotional, contemporary romance to read.

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

Vivian Divine is Dead is so bad that it’s almost comical. I was craughing after finishing it. No joke. With its clichés and "coincidences", this book is like a big fat joke. This is something that would be a million times better on TV than on paper. When you write a book, it’s important you close all the loop holes or at least attempt to. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen in this book. What we have here instead are dramatic twists that are so predictable they just make you want to bang your head on a wall.

Vivian Divine came from a perfect family. Her mother was voted Hollywood’s most beautiful woman 3 times in a row. Her dad's one of the best directors in Hollywood and she herself was the youngest person to be nominated for an Oscar. She had a perfect boyfriend and a beautiful best friend (throw in some self-image issues, too, when she compares herself to her bff) but then her mother died (6 months before the start of the novel) and her father tried to commit suicide. They are trapped in a bubble of grief and no one can seem to catch a break. Her boyfriend cheats on her with her best friend (there’s that trope), her life is in danger (ooh, another one) and now she must go on the run (YAY! Another one, too).

The one thing extremely off with the situation is how her bodyguard lets her go off on her own into the wild without any backup. NO ONE lets celebs go on the run on their own, never mind a celeb who's not even an adult (she is like 16!). I cannot believe Vivian never questioned that. She must have lived a VERY sheltered life.

Which is kind of evident from the fact that Vivian doesn’t even understand the seriousness of the situation she is in. The police may or may not be trying to hunt her down and she is on her way to another country to take refuge, yet she still manages to be self-important and goes around expecting everything to be handed to her on a silver platter. Welcome to the real world, hon. But you know what? She is not ‘that’ bad; she realizes that the real world is completely different because like there are people who go to churches with enough gold to buy Beverly Hills but cannot afford to buy shoes. So, so sad. *sigh*

Vivian Divine also feels like people owe her. She commands people to help her, strangers that have no obligation to do so but should because she ‘wants’ them to.  *shakes head*. She is a flip flop of a character. I cannot actually decide what the author wants us to feel. Are we supposed to like her or are we supposed to be annoyed? Hell, what does Vivian even want herself? I GOT NO IDEA because she cannot make her bloody mind.

The author tries to create a contrast between the environment and where our main character comes from, but the author takes it to the extreme, like to the extreme-extreme. It’s kind of ridiculous.

Her family is surprisingly normal (like before everything went down the shitter) and I have no idea how I feel about that. On one hand it's a positive portrayal of  families and doesn't follow the 'bad parents' stereotype (except her dad is overworked and doesn't give her enough time) but on the other hand, I feel like it just seems so weird that they are these famous Hollywood people and yet they appear extremely normal. This could be a result of my own bias but I definitely found the normalcy somewhat odd.

That wasn't the only thing that struck me as odd, though - the romance was off-the-charts weird. It was horrible. For the first day there seems to be hope that you might see a somewhat developed romance, but then the next day the L words are thought and it’s just like a wtf moment. This book has a tendency to make you go:



Chloe would look pretty damn awesome as the cover of the book. That also happened to be my reaction to the plot.Plot? What plot? This is a soap opera with dramatic twists that can be seen coming from MILES away. It’s not so much unpredictable as it is question mark inducing.

Vivan seems to arrive at the right places and strangers always seem willing to help her. She even compares this to how ‘back home’ people won’t help an old lady cross the road and everyone seems to be nice here. Wait, wait, hold on a second; is this supposed to be the real world because where the fuck is the real world? COINCIDENCES LIKE THESE DON’T HAPPEN.

With all that said, the ending was actually pretty nice. I said that. Go ahead. Throw stuff at me (I have a tendency to do this). I was surprised by it but it did nothing to redeem the book. The book still sucked and I wished I could have my time back.

In all honesty, I really wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone. It’s a waste of time and unless you’re really bored and cannot find any books to read, skip this and read something that’s been on your shelf since the dawn of time.

I enjoyed the mystery and the characters in this book very much. I also enjoyed the historical information about the Eiffel Tower and the Paris Exposition. Even though I have been to the Eiffel Tower, I learned things about it in this book that I didn't know before. I did, however, find the topic of the mystery to be disturbing and not something I needed quite so much information on. I also agree with other reviewers that the editing needs to be better. I do enjoy this series and will keep reading them but they aren't as cozy as I usually prefer.

(old review that hadn't made it over from GR)