Talented by Sophie Davis was surprisingly a very fast read. It started off with an action scene introducing most of the main characters from the story: Talia, Donovan, Eric, and Henry. From the get go I was a bit disappointed and confused as to why the cover model looks nothing like how Talia is described but I got over it and imagined my best friend instead.
The Talents that were mentioned were actually really awesome and I would have liked to have the book more about that than Talia's relationship with Donovan. I hated Donovan from the beginning because his hot-cold attitude towards Talia was really gross. One second he'd be saying that he's totally okay with waiting to have sex with her and the next moment he's trying to have sex with her again. Donovan just sent shivers down my spine with how much of a creep he was. My favorite characters were definitely Eric and Penny (who was introduced later on with a Talent for technology and information). Penny, at first was a bit overwhelming with how happy she was but she gave the book a good diversity and a pause away from Talia's romantic woes. Eric has a Talent to mimic any other Talent and he was one of my favorites because he was an honest characters. Nothing was going to take away from the fact that he was a womanizer and I liked that honesty of him. I wasn't in the mood to read much by the end because Talia was getting super emotional about things and wishy-washy about her feelings and it got irritating. The last fifty pages were a roller coaster ride of action and that pulled me back in the story. I wasn't planning on reading the second book anytime soon but I accidentally read a spoiler for the second book and now I can't help but think about it. I'm so excited to see what happens in the second book with how the first ended and with the spoiler I read about the second book! Overall I'd rate this book a 4/5 and would recommend it to anyone that likes scifi and romance. I would like to thank Sophie Davis for providing the book for review for The Book Cove. It was a great read and I can't wait to read more from her in the future
0 Comments
I really liked how the books started, it grabbed me from the very first pages; it dragged a little around page 120 but then it picked right up. I am still annoyed that the cover girl does not at all reflect any of the characters let alone Talia!
I am conflicted.
I thought that I would not finished the series and yet I did. In fact, I bought and read every book in one week. Talented, to put in the best way possible, was a book that I mostly read for Erik and Talia. Don't get me wrong, that is not a bad thing since the romance was adorable. Unfortunately, I felt that the main story was overshadowed by the romance. Another issue I found with the book was the grammatical errors. Yes, I know that it is hard to rid all grammatical errors from books but a few of the mistakes were obvious. Although those mistakes, I did really enjoy the characters, with the exception of Donavon who was/is a creep. All the characters were well written and enjoyable. Overall, I give this book a D and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a more romance dominate book. This was the July read for my book club, The Book Cove. I had a hard time getting into the book. Not sure if it was the length of introducing the characters or setting up the world that slowed me down. I also read 4 others books while "reading" this one. I enjoyed all the Disney references (obviously since it is a Disney book) and figuring out which description fit into which fairytale. During a transcontinental flight, I burned through the bulk of the book. Of all the characters, I enjoyed Carlos the most. I am looking forward to watching The Descendants for the continuation of their story. I would not re-read this book but would recommend to Disney lovers
Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz was surprisingly a fun read once I got through the first 70 or so pages of introduction and setting the scenes with the characters. It was hard for me to get passed those 70 pages but once I managed to hit 100 the book flowed smoothly and fast.
The book starts out with a party on The Isle of the Lost, an island specifically for all the bad guys/villains in every Disney movie, including sidekicks, humans, and animals. It's basically a penal colony much like Australia was. And just like any penal colony the inmates procreated with each other and there's a new generation of 'bad' in town. The villains have been stuck on the island for twenty years and the children of these villains are approximately sixteen years old. I don't know what happened during the first four years but for some reason all the villains decided to have kids around the time. Baby boom of bad kids appeared so now they have to have a school for these kids, obviously only teaching bad stuff. There's Mal, Maleficent's daughter. Carlos, Cruela deVil's son, who is sort of genius at creating little gadgets. There's Evie, Evil Queen's daughter from Snow White. I was super hoping that Evie was secretly really smart and would someday become an awesome sorcerer/witch because she's always reading her mother's spell books. There's Jay, Jafar's son, who is very much like Aladdin. The story starts off as a prequel during a celebration for Evie's 6th birthday. A celebration that Mal and her mother weren't invited to. We all know what happens when Maleficent isn't invited to parties and, honestly, Evil Queen should have known better. Since no one on the island has any magic Maleficent vanished Evie and her mother to live the rest of eternity in their castle and never step foot in what basically is the center of town and Maleficent's domain. Throughout the book there were so many instances where I just wanted to hug these kids so bad. Their parents were so mean. They were down right emotionally abusive and basically evil villains. My one thought as I was reading was that I hoped that their one act of super villainy for these kids was to overthrow their parents and leave the abuse behind. It was downright painful just to read that Cruella's one true love was her furs and not her son, even the other villain kids thought that Cruella would at least love her son! Out of the four main kids the only ones that don't seem all that mentally scarred are Jay and Evie, but even they are surrounded by such cruelty. I wanted to finish the book before I saw the movie sequel, Descendants, and I'm glad I did. When I was reading the book my favorite characters were Carlos and Mal because they were the most interesting to me. They were the most fleshed out of the group. In the movie Evie and Mal were my favorite. Evie was fantastic and it was hilarious how she dressed up to look like Snow White (obviously to be the fairest of them all at school). I absolutely loved Dove Cameron as Mal, she was the perfect evil with a hint of goodness that I saw in the book. I was a bit upset that the movie didn't add in the bits from the book that were crucial to the plot. Like the fact that Mal and Prince Ben had dreams about each other was completely glossed over, or the fact that Carlos might have possibly been the reason why Maleficent had her staff (and crazy raven) to begin with. There were just a lot of details in the movie that I completely wanted that weren't there. Overall the book was a fantastic read filled with Classic Disney tropes like the whole single parents, the bad parents, overcoming obstacles, etc. I wouldn't say it was an amazing read because I just had so many questions all revolving around the fact that there was a baby boom on the island around the same time as there was a baby boom on the island with all the good guys in it. Overall I'd give this book a 3 out of 5 stars. I don't hate the book but I didn't love it either. It was so-so and the addition of the movie could have made it better but it didn't. But I'll probably get the second book when it comes out in May (or whenever that is). Isle of the Lost by Melissa De La Cruz was a slightly disappointing read. With the large amount of hype that surrounded this book, I was surprised to find it as just an okay-read.The plot felt rather slow for the concept of the story. I did not enjoy the writing style at certain parts of the book, as well.
The characters were my favorite aspect of the story, even though they were a little flat. Despite her personality in the beginning of the novel, Mal was my favorite character! I think Melissa has a great set of characters to work with for the next story and I cannot wait to read it! Also, I am a major Disney fan so all the references in this book were amazing!! I love Melissa de la Cruz but it was hard for me to get in to this book..the beginning was a bit slow.. it wasn't awful once it picked up it was pretty good. Looking forward to the new book in May...since I already have fave characters maybe it will make it easier for me to get in to it
|
Archives
May 2016
Categories |