Rosemary

I didn't get this book for a long time despite the good reviews because the cover art was so cheesy. The old adage regarding books and covers has been proven to me once again. I found this book really entertaining, the world it is set in was interesting without being too complicated, and the characters were about as multi-dimensional as you get in books like this (with the exception of maybe the BDB series). Best paranormal romance I've listened to in a while.

This was adequately entertaining but not one of my favorites. It certainly has no pretensions of being anything more than a cheesy romance novel, which I appreciate on some level, but I wish the writing had strayed a little further from the established cliches - I found nothing at all interesting or engaging about this book and probably won't listen to anything else by this author.

This book just didn't do much for me. I thought the science fiction aspect of the plot was great, but that was its only redeeming feature. The book goes on at great length about the main characters' feelings for each other (I'd swear entire paragraphs are copied and pasted multiple places in the book), but the way their relationship developed wasn't particularly interesting, and I didn't feel particularly invested in how things turned out for them. I also listened to another book in this series and it suffered from the same problems. It's a shame, because I really want to know what happens in the larger sci-fi plot line, but I just can't take any more cut-and-paste sex scenes and vague, overwrought sentimentality.

I quite enjoyed listening to this book and being transported into the world that the author creates. It's not perfect, and some of the characters were not especially believable, but I highly recommend it if you're looking for something in the vein of "The Secret History of the Pink Carnation". (To be fair, the quality of the writing in "The Physick Book" is about 10 times better than "Pink Carnation", but the parts set in the past in "Pink Carnation" are about 10 times more engaging.)

I probably wouldn't have listened beyond the paaaaainfully slow and aimless-feeling first couple of hours, but I was trapped in a car with nothing else to listen to. I'm glad I did, though. This is a very atmospheric book that draws you into its little world. It requires some suspension of disbelief to really get into the story (like, about everything you think you know about how human beings behave), but I ultimately found it pretty entertaining.

For adults in Twilight withdrawal, look no further. (And if you're not looking for a bona fide cheesy romance novel, you're not really in Twilight withdrawal.)

The story is fine, but the narrator is distractingly bad. Like another reviewer said, she consistently mispronounces the main character's name, which is really distracting. She has an annoyingly nasal voice and an indeterminate accent that is altogether unsatisfying. I could go on, but it looks like Kate Reading is back for the next one in the series, so I'll quit whining and just try to get through this one as quickly as possible.