May Mini-Reviews

It's that time again! For those of you who don't know, I'm working on reading a book a week for 2012 and giving a little taste of my opinion about each one. I didn't quite as much this past month, but I've been diting like crazy, so it's worth it :)

I started out with a novel from an author I've actually met before. The Hourglass Door, by Lisa Mangum. I'd heard so many good things about this book, I couldn't wait to dig in. Plus, I wanted to do my research on popular time travel novels and this felt like a good place to start.

That being said, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I have really hard time reading 1st person past tense novels becasue my mind changes the words to present tense. It's just my opinion, but if you're writing in 1st person it should be present tense.  The other thing was the clear lack of time travel. Yes, one of the MC's travels through time, but I really wouldn't classify the book as time travel.  I think I was so hyped about reading it that I just got disappointed. That being said, I still really liked the male MC.

I had Lola and the Boy Next Door on hold at the library and it finally came in this month. I really liked Anna and the French Kiss so I expected to like this book too, and I wasn't let down. I love the quirky Lola and the style conscious Cricket. A very cute and fun read!

This was another time travel novel that was hyped about, so I was way excited to read it. Hourglass by Myra McEntire is another 1st person past tense novel that had only a drop of time travel in it.

The MC really bothered me in this book. She was so antsy and afraid of everything. They didn't travel through time until the end of the story because 300 pages just had to be devoted to telling us how the time travel was possible.

I'm sorry, but this is 2012, everyone already believes time travel is in the realm of possibilities. I really didn't like the ideas being pushed on me.  This is the first book I've read this year that I honestly did not like. Every other book at least entertained me to some degree. ( I feel like that's really harsh--a lot of people like this book, I'm just not one of them.)

Last, but not least, I read Clockwise by Elle Strauss. I've been following her blog for a while, wanting to read her book, but a little afraid to take the leap. The other day she was giving it away for free so I decided it was now or never and downloaded a copy. I was reading another book, but I thought I'd take a quick peek at the first chapter.

I was hooked.

Once again, this book was 1st person past tense, but it was written so well it didn't bother me at all. I stopped reading another book so I could finish this one. And I was reading it on my phone (which I normally have a really hard time with.)

The time travel was awesome, the characters were so well rounded (and likable) and the story had me biting my nails. It really killed me to have to wait until my next paycheck to buy the 2nd book. It was the best book I read this month, hands down.


That's it for the month of May. What was your favorite read last month?

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