Stacking The Shelves: April 2, 2016

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted @ Tynga's Reviews.

For Review:
The Ottoman Empire: From Beginning To End by Stephan Weaver

This was really interesting to read and my review will come soon!

Bought:
Caught in the Dream by Eva Chase

I haven't read book #2 yet but this one is on sale until April 5 so I went ahead and grabbed it.

Leave me links to your hauls so I can stop by! :)

Review: A Sealed Fate by Lisa Gordon

Title: A Sealed Fate
Author: Lisa Gordon
Publication: January 30th 2009 by Janus Book Publishers
Cover Rating: 4/5
Overall Rating: 1/5

Copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

 

Upbeat and contemporary in style, this riveting narrative features an eclectic mix of characters awash with local color. To escape the pain of failed relationships and careers, both Valda and Larissa take themselves to the exotic locale of Dubai, seeking not only success but a general purpose in life. Valda does indeed find fulfillment--and, to her astonishment, love--but all is threatened when she is introduced to a billionaire Sheikh. Her clandestine relationship with the Sheikh propels her into a murky web of deceit, and she turns to her friend for help. As an astrologer, Larissa predicts that Valda and the Sheikh's destinies were decided from the moment of their first meeting, but she keeps the dire outcome foretold in the charts a secret. Together, the two women soon find themselves gambling in a game of cosmic Russian roulette where the stakes are their lives and their adversary is fate itself. Bravely merging genres and sensitively embracing personal relationships, this spiritual and gritty thriller illustrates the complex theme of choice versus chance.

~My Thoughts:

First of all I want to thank the author , Lisa Gordon, again for being so nice to send me a copy of her book for review. 
A Sealed Fate, being a thriller, isn't my usual genre at all. I almost never read thrillers but I wanted to try it anyway because I liked the synopsis a lot and usually really like gritty books. Also every now and then I like to mix things up in reading books. 

A Sealed Fate brings us to the exotic city of Dubai where we meet Valda who after going through a bad break-up left South Africa to accept a new job as singer in a club. One night she meets the rich Sheikh who also ownes the club. That's when Valda's real problems start. 

I must say that I really love exotic settings like in this book, places where I have never been but dream about. However that is my only positive note on this book, unfortunately. Overall, I didn't like this book at all. I feel really bad about that because I wish I loved every book I read but sadly enough that's not always the case. 
My major issues with this book were the poor writing, characters I couldn't connect with at all and the over-usage (is this even a word?) of exclamation points. 
The writing didn't flow smoothly enough for my liking and the pace was very slow. I really dislike books that are like that. At times I had to force myself to continue reading. This is never a good thing. 
I didn't feel a thing for any of the characters. Valda the least of all. I just couldn't connect with her or anyone else. It's sad because characters are pretty much the most important things in books mostly. 
I know I'm not the only one saying this about this book but there was so much use of exclamation points even when it's a normal sentence. I felt like they were shouting at the freaking time in this book. Yes, it really bugged me. Le sigh.


All in all, A Sealed Fate was personally for me a no-go. Maybe thrillers aren't my thing but I just couldn't find anything I liked about it except for the gorgeous setting. I hope people won't be too discouraged by me because readers who love gritty thrillers might like it after all. 

~About the author:

An only child to a single Mum, Lisa was born and brought up in Johannesburg, South Africa. Despite a lifelong ambition to act, she enrolled at the University of the Witwatersrand to do a BCom Law. She later moved to UK, where she achieved a BSc Industrial Economics Hons Degree from Warwick. Still wanting to be a star - her Mum encouraged her to study 'The Stars' and Lisa became an Astrologer. Lisa worked on hospital radio for many year, before becomming a regular Astrology guest on BBC local radio. As an Astrologer Lisa was always asked by her clients to make black and white definitive predictions about their futures: this made Lisa ponder the role of fate in our lives and how much freewill we really had. Hence the plot for her philosophical thriller, 'A Sealed Fate' was born. Choice versus chance - which prevails? Lisa wrote her book while also writing the ACA Chartered Accountants exams. She hopes to become a successful writer, not an accountant! Lisa is grateful to the wonderful support of both strangers and friends and their inspiration. Lisa is also grateful for having a 'power-house' Mum; who is her biggest supporter and best buddie.

Review: The Elite by Kiera Cass

Title: The Elite
Author: Kiera Cass
Series: The Selection #2
Publication: April 23rd 2013 by HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult ~ Dystopian
Format: Paperback, 323 pages
Cover Rating: 5/5 (Gorgeous!)
Overall Rating: 1/5

  

The hotly-anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestseller The Selection.

Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Iléa.

America still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s swept up in their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with anyone else. But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, and is overcome with memories of the life they planned to share. With the group narrowed down to the Elite, the other girls are even more determined to win Maxon over—and time is running out for America to decide.

Just when America is sure she’s made her choice, a devastating loss makes her question everything again. And while she’s struggling to imagine her future, the violent rebels that are determined to overthrow the monarchy are growing stronger and their plans could destroy her chance at any kind of happy ending.

This is going to be a tough review for me, be warned.

Last summer I read The Selection and I loved it. I thought the whole idea of a story like this was really original. I loved that it was like The Bachelor put into a dystopian book. I saw a lot of positive reviews about it so I figured it would be positive for me too. So I had to read The Elite also of course and I must say (obviously) I'm rather disappointed by it. Actually a whole lot disappointed. 

I really wanted to like this book, more so than some others because The Selection was so good for me. Maybe I had to high hopes but I wanted to enjoy this. The fact that I didn't was a big disappointment because I just wanted this book to be done and over. And that's just never good with any book.

I was so frustrated with pretty much everything and every character in The Elite. First of all, America. What was up with her? She kept running back and forth between Maxon and Aspen. It was literally one page she was loving on Maxon and the next she was crawling back to Aspen. Girl, no, just no. The whole book was like this. All about that stupid love triangle. I can like love triangles if they are done well but in this book it has got to be one of the most terrible I've ever read about. And what was up with her decision making I could hardly follow her train of thought. Doesn't she think at all? At least the 

 thing that I didn't totally hate was how America was able to read Gregory Illea's diary. What a jackass he was. That's the only thing I want to know more about. Is the diary what the rebels are after or is it something else?

I used to love Maxon to bits and pieces but this book ruined him for me. I didn't like him one bit. I guess that The Selection is some sort of game and Maxon has to be sure that he makes the right decision but please, I can't stand the whole thing. Dating all these girls, messing around with him. Ugh! No wonder America got so jealous. And really, Maxon, Celeste? REALLY? The only thing that's not totally awful is that I can sort of understand him a bit, with everything his father (who is a totally pyscho by the way) puts him through he wants distractions but there are other ways. I did feel sorry for what America witnessed at some point... 

Aspen still is some sort of vague character for me. He wasn't that much in the book but also not totally absent. He did some pretty nice things for America but after what happened to Marlee I can't understand why both him and America would take such huge risks. They are asking to get caught! And no, it doesn't mean that when I'm no longer team Maxon that I'm suddenly team Aspen. I can't pick any teams in this book because they both suck. I'm team America, get the hell out of there and work on yourself, please.

The remaining girls in The Selection are definitely on my black list. Especially Kriss. I can't stand her. I get that America messed up and that suddenly Kriss and Maxon got close but it was all so awful to read about. And Celeste, I need her to leave already. 

There were some rebel attacks again. Wonder what that's about. It's awful but I'd rather read about them attacking the palace and have some action at least than America going back and forth with her two guys. Seriously. But even with the few attacks, we don't know anything. 

So yeah, frustration everywhere for every character. 

I was also quite disappointed with the author's writing. And I'm not saying this to bash her or anything. I don't even like giving a book this low a rating because I barely do that. But I couldn't get over it. I didn't like the writing at all. It felt rushed and I can't remember I hated it this much with The Selection. What happened I wondered. I missed action. A lot of them. You'd think because there are rebels, they should've been more of that than there was. Sadly enough it wasn't so. And I really disliked the ending. Literally nothing happened throughout this book. Nothing. I am so disappointed! At least the cover is beautiful and it was a fast read.

Overall, The Elite by Kiera Cass was a huge disappointment. Everything from the frustrating characters to the lame plot to the weak writing, it all felt rushed. I wished I had liked it a lot more, but sadly enough I didn't. But I decided I will read the third book once it comes out because I want to know the ending. I hope it won't disappoint me again.

Kiera Cass graduated from Radford University with a degree in History. She grew up in South Carolina and currently lives in Blacksburg, Virginia with her family. In her spare time, Kiera enjoys reading, dancing, making videos, and eating unhealthy amounts of cake. You can learn more about Kiera at kieracass.com, follow her on twitter via @kieracass, and see her silly videos at YouTube.com/user/kieracass.
Visit Kiera at: http://www.kieracass.com