The Temptation (TSC #6) by Aubrey Clark | Rating: ★★☆☆☆

The Temptation is an all-time series LOW for the mess that was a continuation of L.J. Smith’s fantastic The Secret Circle series. What was once a delightful and magically dark trilogy is now a half-assed attempt at expanding the world and giving it a bit of a modernized treatment. And I can’t help but to think, once more, what the hell was going on in the minds of those who decided to continue the series?

Okay, okay, fine. It’s totally the whole money thing and it’s very tacky and disappointing but I do get it. I still think it was horribly unnecessary and butchered a perfectly good series by taking it away from its roots and the brilliantly kind L.J. Smith.

In theory this final installment could have worked well and packed on the action, it fell back into its pattern of being increasingly lackluster and a barrel of wasted potential. The Hunt, its predecessor, was far superior and while it was by no means as good as the original run, it was still better than whatever this was.

Once more, this is because L.J. Smith isn’t the one writing the books any longer and our ghost writer, Aubrey Clark, doesn’t quite have the spark or understanding of these characters like their creator did. Even the television adaptation (RIP, you were gone too soon!) seemed to portray the characters better than this mess.

What Might Have Been by Matt Dunn | Rating: ★★☆☆☆

From 2014. This book was won via Goodreads First Read Program. This in no way effects my review or alters my opinions on the novel at hand.

Where to begin, where to begin...

What Might Have Been seemed interesting to me, based upon the plot summary and I had high hopes for it. It wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be and just drove me a little bit mad at times. Our main romance was the highest case of Instalove I've seen and in turn, one that I just couldn't look past. Romance novels aren't always believable and in this stories case, it was too unbelievable for me. I hate that I didn't like it because it's not even that it's a terrible idea filled with terrible writing it just wasn't enough and captivating for me.

I set it down dozens of times and almost didn't finish it. I couldn't do it, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Frankly, it was filled with many face-meet-palm moments that I had to look away countless times because why? WHY, WHY, WHY. I'm not even kidding you guys, this novel frustrated me a great deal and left me feeling like maybe I'm the frustrating one. Maybe I'm over-thinking it and not giving myself the chance to enjoy it. But I'm not going to apologize, I'm not going to insult and I'm not going to say I hated it because hate is such a strong word and my annoyance with this novel wasn't quite at that level.

The Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn’t Fly by Stephen Graham and Paul Tremblay (as PT Jones) | Rating: ★★☆☆☆

"Gravity sucks, yeah?"

The thing about this novel is that it had the potential to be something unique and really, really captivating. I was instantly concerned that it just wouldn’t work out, however, when I saw how short it was. Regardless, I did have high hopes for it. Unfortunately for me, it started off so slowly I wasn’t sure I’d really be able to focus myself on finishing it — but I did give it a chance because it really did seem promising and I hoped for some improvements over the span of the novel.

In terms of plotlines, it is unique in the midst of all that is young adult literature these days but even in its uniqueness it just didn’t fit with me. It wasn’t my cup of tea, but that shouldn’t frighten any of you away from giving it a go — it just wasn’t for me.

I couldn’t help but cringe at certain parts of the novel and immediately felt guilty in doing so because I really wanted to like this novel. But it felt like an odd mix between slow and fast — it lacked certain detailing in my opinion and left me a bit puzzled from time to time, almost as if I’d missed something big as I read.

Which was very, very frustrating.

Cum Laude (Class) by Cecily von Ziegesar | Rating: ★★☆☆☆

“To her surprise, college was even lonelier than high school.”

I’m a bit torn on what rating I’d like to give this novel because I feel as though I am judging it a bit too harshly. Cum Laude is meant to be the first adult novel that Cecily has done but it reads far too similar to her young adult style of writing we come to find in the Gossip Girl book series. It’s shaky, at best. But the story itself is by no means the worst thing I’ve ever read, so perhaps my rating of two stars will raise to three.

I’m unsure.

Off that note, I’ve been a fan of Cecily for years and years. Aside from Harry Potter, and more recently the Hunger Games and the Darkest Minds, I’ve never really had a big obsession with a series of books like I did with Gossip Girl and its spin-off series The It Girl. I can proudly say that she is one of the authors that not only got me reading, but she also got me writing.

And she’s so sassy and stylish, her narratives are often hilariously sarcastic.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L James | Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

See, the thing about hype is that it rarely lives up to expectations for most of its audience. And let me tell you: this book obviously has some serious hype to back it up and its fanbase is massive. My ex-girlfriend was one of those people — completely obsessed with this novel and the remaining books in the trilogy.

Naturally, she had me sit down and read the first book. And by sit down, I mean she essentially forced me to read it and as a good girlfriend, I did.

I knew three things when I started it and the facts were these (okay — I’ll admit it now, the reason I’m writing it that way are because I just had a Pushing Daisies rewatch and seem to think I am the narrator. Sorry!): it was at one point a Twilight fanfiction, it is an erotica lovestory and it features BDSM. I often got the fanfiction confused with another Twilight fic with similar themes called The Submissive -- which, admittedly, as a horny teenager I read eagerly and waited patiently for each update. That being said, I never could get into this story even in the fanfiction days.

So firstly I want to say that it was really, really badly written. I found myself physically cringing on more than one occasion while reading. And normally, these sorts of books — this genre, things aren’t always written that well anyways. People don't read erotic novels for mind blowing writing; they read it for fantasy. But this reached beyond that in terms of really awful writing. It was repetitive and though there were many details in it they just weren't that captivating for me, personally.

I wanted to like it. Really, I did.