Martina BooneCritiques

Honestly, I didn't like most of the characters names. They were just kind of weird, but that is an easy thing to get over when the rest of the story is so incredibly interesting and especially when that was my only problem with this book.

This story is set in the south on Watson Island. I love the south, I'm from it, and I love hearing stories about it, so that gave this story a bonus for me. There are three plantations, two still standing and one destroyed. The setting and the way it is described is beautiful and so easy to imagine. The main character, Barrie, is staying at Watson Landing, a huge house that is falling apart. "The house emerged slowly from behind the violet-shadowed trees. Where at first there was only an impression of whitewashed bricks, fluted columns, and gabled roofs..." "A shutter hung drunkenly on a nearby window like it was going to crash down at any moment. Paint peeled from one of the tall columns, and mortar had crumbled from between the bricks." The descriptions are rich with detail throughout the book, a must for me to stay interested.

The characters were alive and vibrant, so different and interesting. Barrie makes a few stupid decisions just to prove that she can do what she wants, and to make Eight mad, I wanted to scream at her more than once. But she is smart and interesting. She and Eight together is just amazing. Eight... The dream guy, Charles Beaufort the eighth. I loved him. I love both southern boys and baseball players, lucky me that he is both. He is a great match for Barrie. They challenge each other throughout the book and are a cute YA couple.
Cassie and Wyatt... I can't even imagine having to deal with one of them.

There were twists throughout the story, and so many at the end. The supernatural elements were like none I have ever read, with Native American influences and a unique type of magic. The mystery kept me guessing and surprised more than once. I can't wait to read the next book. If it is anywhere close to the quality of this one, I am sure to love it too.

This was no where near as good as the first book. It was good, but the plot didn't keep me engaged and wanting to learn more. I found myself getting bored. I really wanted to like this, but it just didn't do it for me the way the first book did.
I kept reading just because I like Eight a lot.
Barrie just irritated me during this one. I feel like I was wanting to yell at her everything she did or said something stupid.
The new characters like Berg and Obidiah didn't make a lasting impression on me. They could have been both more interesting.
Obidiah was creepy, but he could have been more fun to read about. I found myself annoyed, not in the way I usually am with the villians, but so annoyed that I wanted to skip parts he was in. I never even figured out what happened to him in the end. And I didn't care enough to try to find out.
The first book was amazing.
This one, not so much.

I wanted to like it more than I ultimately did. It has all these excellent Southern Gothic hallmarks and teasers. It has paranormal elements. It seems really promising, but I found it very contrived in many ways. There's a mystery you aren't expecting. There's a romance, which at least isn't a triangle. There's an overly complicated plot and several things left unresolved. I think the thing I had the hardest time with is the very flat character relationships.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by Edeulweiss.

Not the ending I was hoping for. Not that it was a bad ending, but it's always disappointing when the technicalities of the "magic" overshadow the wonder. I loved the almost-magic-realism feel of the first book, but this one had more in common with a metaphysical science text.

Add in some philosophical ponderings about the horrors of slavery and the shortcomings of historical records, and the relationships and mystery shaping the rest of the series read more like window dressing for an (albeit interesting) educational lecture series than the heart of the book.

Cute, sweet romance with a magical realism twist.

También en: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

Cuando vi la portada más la asociación con el título, me esperaba… no sé, creo que no el escenario que trae Compulsion. La portada me dice otoño, la chica recostada en el piso… ¿quizá una tragedia? ¿Pérdida? ¿Sueño? Y el título “Compulsión” (traducción literal al español), la verdad pensé que era sobre una chica que cleptómana que sea tropieza y cae al suelo en uno de sus episodios. A veces creo que tengo demasiada imaginación cuando se trata de interpretar imágenes, deberían ver mis pruebas psicológicas, son bastante curiosas.

Misticismo Sureño (del gringo)

Luego de leer tropecientos libros ambientadas en Estados Unidos una llega a cansarse y sentir que ya conoce todo acerca de ese país, muchas de las locaciones son casi siempre repetitivas. En Compulsion la historia gira entorno a una leyenda y una especie de Dios/Demonio Indio (no me pidan nombre que ya no me acuerdo, es un poco difícil de recordar u.u), una cultura de la que no sé nada y fue interesante aprender siquiera una poquita cosa (de seguro inventada) de historia. No hay muchos libros en Young Adult que usen como recurso creencia popular, el único otro libro que recuerdo que tiene un poco de eso es en la serie Night Huntress, con el vudú y el Mardi Grass. Así que por ahí, tiene para mí, un punto a favor.

Romance

Dije una vez que cuando hay algo paranormal o no-humano en un libro, el insta-love no me molesta. Es que, si puedo creer que tal o cual cosa tiene poderes imposibles ¿Por qué habría de ser imposible también enamorarse a primera vista? Creo que eso ya son pequeños traumas míos con que el amor entre humanos normales no existe y demás. La relación entre Barrie Watson y Eight “8” (se cree el doble de Tobías *badatumbs*) Beaufort es extraña, el secreto de la familia Beaufort es bastante curiosa y, créanme, mataría por tenerla. Así la vida sería tan sencilla, podría dominar el mundo sin más esfuerzo del que hago ahora. La manera en la que su relación se desarrolla no me molestó pero tampoco tiene el efecto “DESMAYO”, no es memorable porque estuve más interesada en la historia central.

Mansión Watson

Cómo comenté al inicio de esta reseña, la portada me tuvo en conflicto porque no dice “Esta es la historia de una chica que tiene el poder de encontrar cosas perdidas y que si no lo hace tiene horribles dolores de cabeza”, al menos para mí no. La portada no me dice nada fuera de lo común, más allá de un drama sobre una chica. Yendo al punto, el escenario central del libro es esta mansión bella y antigua, y aquí tengo que decir que tengo un pequeño amor por la arquitectura. Y lo antiguo. Y rebuscar entre las cosas ¿Qué mejor lugar para encontrar pequeños tesoros y secretos que una mansión antigua? Mientras leía la mano me picaba porque quería estar ahí abriendo cajones, buscando pasadizos secretos, cajas con fotos antiguas. Compulsion sería un muy buen y sencillo video juego (de esos de Facebook, como Criminal Case)

Leí Compulsion un domingo en la tarde que quería descansar, distraer mi mente un rato y lo logré, ha sido muy entretenido leerlo

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Another hit from the Celtic Legends series. Ms. Boone weaves a fantastic story of love, heartbreak and ancient lore to create a masterpiece. And one of the main characters is the man I personally was most interested to read more about from book one. (This book can be read as a standalone in my opinion, but I highly recommend reading book one first.) Channeling the likes of Maeve Binchy, we are brought the character of Emma, a lost soul who doesn't seem to belong anywhere. When she is given the opportunity to vacation in land full of legend and lore, she agrees. Being raised on the great Gothic novels, her heart cannot say no. Little does she know just how much she is getting into and how much of an impact this little vacation make actually make in her life.

For those you love Maeve Binchy, Nora Roberts, and romantic, mystical stories, this book (and series) is definitely for you!

This book was amazing! I love all things Celtic so that is what initially drew me to this novel. This was the first book I have read by this author so I wasn't sure what exactly to expect. But once I started it, I could not put it down!!!! Although the author is definitely her own person, it reminds me of a Maeve Binchy-type novel. The storytelling is fantastic, the characters are well-defined, and believable and she weaves such a tale of love and magic! I cannot wait to see what else this series holds!

It was odd reading this one, by the time I got 3/4 the way done I started thinking about the story and how little had actually happened plot wise. This installment was a real slow burn, I liked Ms. Boone's writing, and it did flow along, and I'll definitely read the next one, because (well, she ended on a cliffhanger, and dang you know how I LOVE those- yes, that was laced with a heavy dose of sarcasm) I do genuinely like those characters and want to see what happens to them.

So apparently I have a "thing" for Southern Gothic tales of romance and mystery. I loved this book, the character all steeped in backstory- of which neither we nor the main character (Barrie) knows anything about, the mystery of who she and the other founding families have their "powers" and the repercussions of using those same powers and the blossoming romance between Barrie and Eight (he's the eighth in the line with the same name).

It was so interesting to focus on the psychological aspects of magic and what it does to your psyche- in terms of the limitations that Ms. Boone has put on her characters and the definite limitations they have BECAUSE of the powers, not the actual abilities those powers provide.

It's not perfect, but it's so darn close, I was rooting for Barrie and wanted her cousin to get her comeuppance, and hopefully that will happen in the next installment-

Really nice ending to this trilogy, it wrapped up all the remaining questions. I did love the relationship between Eight and Barrie and how she was able to view the relationships of the others around her.

This first book in Martina Boone’s new Celtic Legends series doesn't disappoint with cute Highland men wearing kilts, overly friendly dogs making mischief, and two singles so caught up in the organization of a traditional Highland festival that they can't seem to find time to fall in love.

Yet we know going into this sweet romance from Mayfair Publishing that there will be love by the end of the book. It's not the destination that we’re concerned with here but rather the journey from being lonely to being in love.

What helps the story is that you immediately like Anna, the heroine. And who can't fall instantly in love with a devastatingly handsome former blockbuster movie star now widower who puts the care and comfort of his only daughter above his own needs. It seems like an instant match to me.

However, what throws off the story for me is the convoluted backstories of both our heroine and hero. There are repeated tellings - and I mean *repeated* - of Anna’s story. We can piece together what has driven Anna to the Highlands: (1) a strained relationship between Anna and her mother, because of Anna’s participation in childhood beauty pageants; (2) Anna’s strained relationship with her sister, Katherine, who took something of Anna’s (3) Anna’s human error at her former law firm that caused her to leave D.C. We understand what molded Anna into the person she is at the beginning and end of her story. She grows during this story. I LOVE when a heroine grows during the story. We have a climax and resolution for her first backstory; which I think is why I liked Anna so much. I understood her growth during the story. But resolution for the other two are rather half hearted and really felt like they could be cut out If they aren’t worth a proper resolution.

I feel the same about Connal’s backstory. While we hear repeated pieces of his background story I get lost in the different versions of Connal as he keeps reinventing himself to present to the outside world. Each with it's own name. I never feel like I really connected to who Connal is on the inside. I don't believe his background story was told with the same conviction with which Anna’s story was told. Therefore I felt like we missed something when the ending came and it was a happily ever after for Connal but I still had open wounds for him that hadn't yet healed.

That being said, this is truly a sweet romance that I had the pleasure to read. Boone has a wonderful turn of a phrase and has mastered the art of description. I shall never be able travel to the Highlands myself, but I do believe that for a few hours Boone had transported me there. I will remember the experience fondly in my dreams. Clearly Boone has mastered storytelling, so I'm writing off any missing holes in Connal’s story as the price we pay in today's cutthroat publishing world with an eye on page count and costs. Given an unlimited canvas to write on I'm convinced Boone would have presented us with a masterful backstory and growth for Connal. I can't wait to read the next book in the series and continue my relation with the inhabitants of Boone’s Highland.

I received a free copy but voluntarily reviewed.

2/3rds Beautiful Creatures series with a dash of Lauren Oliver's Rooms.

I'm so sad, I had a down day and decided to power through this book, couldn't wait to get it and I just couldn't do it. I so enjoyed the first in the trilogy and the second was tough but good... this just slogged through the middle until I skipped to the end ( hardly ever remember doing this) and still had to put it down.

Excellent second installment of the Heirs of Watson Island series. The complexity of Bear's character continues to deepen and drive the story line as well as her involvement with Eight as her love interest. The second volume picks right up where the first volume ends. Hate having to wait until the fall of 2016 for the next volume in this series!

The cover is mysteriously beautiful and catchy, this is the book that has been on my TBR list for a long while, on and off and finally I got the change to read it.

It's a fast read and completely different of what I had expected, much more overrated than I could have imagined. Its a trilogy of family saga with long history of mystery, family history and revenge between extended family members. It's something as a little detective plus paranormal and romance plot. The book is about Barrie who has agreed to go and live with her aunt after her mother's death, aunt whom she has never heard of, and whole extended baggage that gets included - super tiny village town with everyone having "small town mentality", "wireless phone" message system - aka mouth of word and family's history involving raging distant family members and whole lot strange, mysterious shadows and creepy stuff that Barrie tries her best to get her answers. She falls for a boy and who also becomes her best friend over the weeks time shes there..
Together they find and reveal an awful tragedy that her family has kept well hidden and should not have been..

Leaving my review to this point - I started to dislike the main character the moment shes thinking in her mind - and thats whats gonna be in the next book - selfishness..thats the way I see it.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read the book!

I finally talked myself into finishing this book because I figured since nothing happened in over 200 pages, surely something was going to happen soon. Wrong!! This story is over 400 pages long and about 300 of it is fluff! The author just restates the same things over and over again a hundred different ways. Finally, at about page 398, the main characters actually "start" to do something besides arguing but I'm thinking in the back of my head there isn't enough pages left now for them to actually "do" it! Sure enough, right when the plot finally kicks off the book ends with a nice little note to "Stay tuned for Illusion, the next book in the Heirs of Watson Island series, coming Fall 2016." Yeah sure, right, like I'm really going to jump to add that one to my TBR. Needless to say, I was not happy with this second book at all. It was a complete let down. I like the characters and the premise of the series had a lot of potential but it's not worth wading through hundreds of pages of filler just to get a paragraph of action so they can drag the series out. I'm definitely not wasting any more time on this one.

At first it started out a little slow I kept wondering what the heck I was reading about-romance, Gothic, mystery, paranormal etc. etc.?? Then around page 135 the story took really took off and I didn't put it down until the end. I thought it was a very unique story and really original characters. I can't wait to read Persuasion!

Loved this book! It never stopped giving me surprises. The characters scream for more word time. It is a series in the making, so much room to grow. I couldn't put it down.

Loved this book! It never stopped giving me surprises. The characters scream for more word time. It is a series in the making, so much room to grow. I couldn't put it down.

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Gorgeous sequel filled with action packed adventure, a lush setting and an unforgettable romance! This is a series you do not want to miss!

Opening Sentence: The last miles of the journey stretched eternally, and Watson’s Landing pulled more and more on Barrie’s finding gift.

The Review:

Barrie Watson has a unique gift where she has the ability to find anything that is lost. She was born with the gift and eventually she figures out that it’s a family trait that has been passed down for generations! After losing her mother and beloved godfather Barrie leaves the only home she has ever known to live with an aunt she has never met! With its mysterious magic and interesting history Barrie has never felt like she belonged anywhere until arriving at Watson Island. It turns out that she’s not the only person to have a special gift. The Beaufort’s across the river have the ability to sense what people want and the Coleworth’s next door have been cursed with bad luck. There is a lot going on at Watson Plantation but Barrie can’t imagine ever wanting to live anywhere else!

But Barrie’s not the only person to find Watson Plantation fascinating. There are some ghost-hunters that have been snooping around trying to catch a glimpse of the mysterious fire catcher that lights the river on fire each night. Then a group of archaeologists show up to look into the rumor of buried treasure at the Colesworth Place. Finally, a mysterious magical man appears and claims to know how to break the curse that has plagued the Colesworth’s for all these years. But in order to break the curse he will need Barrie’s help finding something that has been lost for centuries!

Barrie is a wonderful and interesting protagonist. She is smart, witty, and a very independent girl that is easy to admire. She’s also a sweet girl and always tries to see the best in everyone. Sometimes her willingness to always help others gets her into trouble, but her kindness is one of her best qualities. The one thing that I didn’t particularly love about Barrie was how insecure she is about her relationships with other people in her life. I get that growing up she didn’t really have many examples of good relationships, so it has been hard for her to make strong connections with others because she can’t open up easily. She has so many fears of being hurt, so she tends to push people away. The only reason this bugged me was because I felt it caused a lot of unnecessary drama in the story. But overall, I loved Barrie and I really enjoyed being inside her head.

I fell madly in love with Eight in Compulsion and it was no surprise to me that I fell even more in love with him in Persuasion! Not only is he ridiculously good looking, he is also sweet, charming, and just overall amazing. He has an abundance of patience when it comes to Barrie and he seriously treats her so good. But he also has his own set of insecurities that make him imperfect but relatable. He has dyslexia, which has caused him to struggle academically but he hasn’t let that stop him from fulfilling his dreams of going to college and making something of himself away from the Beaufort family. I really admire and respect Eight and he has become one of my favorite book boys! (Just read the excerpt below and you will see one of the many reasons why I love him so much!)

In Compulsion you get to experience the start of the relationship between Eight and Barrie. That beginning of a relationship is always fun and exciting because everything is so fresh and full of promise. But sometimes after the newness wears off relationships can become dull and boring. Unfortunately, this not only happens in real life, but I find that my interest in book couples will wane at times once they have been together for a while. I’m so happy to say that this wasn’t the case with Eight and Barrie. I fell even more in love with them as a couple in Persuasion. They went from having a timid new beginning of something that could be great to an epic romance that is the forever kind. I loved watching them fall in love and create everlasting memories. But their relationship isn’t all peaches and roses. They both have insecurities they have to work through and of course there are things/people that threaten to tear them apart. But through their struggles they become better people and they grow closer together. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them in the final book!!!

Persuasion is filled with action-packed adventure, a lush setting and an unforgettable romance! Surprisingly in my opinion it was actually better then the first book in the series. I really enjoyed Compulsion but I loved Persuasion. The plot had some great twists and it easily kept my interest until the very last page. There was never a dull moment and I honestly didn’t want it to end. Speaking of endings this one had a pretty terrible cliffhanger, which is frustrating because now I have to wait an entire year to read the next book! But if you can’t tell by my raving review, I am really looking forward to reading Illusion in 2016! If you are looking for a great paranormal story filled with adventure, humor, and amazing characters you should definitely check out this series!

Notable Scene:

“Even if I got to USC and I date every girl in Southern California,” he said, “I’m not going to find another girl like you. Not in a year, or ten, or even a hundred years. I’m not stupid enough to let that go without a fight, so whatever assurances you need, I’ll figure out how to give them to you.” He tossed her one of his careless smiles. “I’ve been out with enough girls to know what I want. I know. You and me together? We’re not the same plain vanilla let’s-date-while-we’re-in-high-school, let’s-go-to-prom, let’s-promise-we’ll-talk-in-college relationship. We’re more like those fireworks on the Fourth of July that keep exploding with new bursts every time they’re done. Before we know it, we’ll be in rocking chairs side by side on the porch, holding hands and watching a houseful of great grandchildren chasing blue ghost fireflies on the lawn.”

FTC Advisory: Simon Teen provided me with a copy of Persuasion. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

I'm not sure why authors have a need to come up with unusual names for their characters. This is one of just several I have read recently where the main character's name is very strange. A girl named Lombard and called Barrie? Really? It was totally distracting to me, and never really explained beyond the fact that she came from San Francisco and was named after the curved street. And the male character's name is Eight. Hmmmmmm.
I was also disappointed by the stereotypical southern-ness going on. I'm pretty sure this author has never lived in the South before, because I didn't ever FEEL the South in her writing. This may have been the fault of the book I read right before this, which was Southern Gothic done right. Several times while reading Beware the Wild I could almost hear the cicadas and katydids singing in the swamp, and feel the heat and humidity. So this book, with Aunt Pru's annoying habit of saying "sugar" every time she opened her mouth, got old pretty quickly. However, I did like Compulsion , I was just annoyed at a few things. The plot was interesting and the characters likeable, even though a couple of times I was a little confused by the families/relatives and who was who. I really liked Barrie and Eight (in spite of their names), and the character of Mark, although we never meet him in person - just through phone conversations, is so clearly drawn that I can completely picture him. The end was exciting and came to a conclusion (for the most part), which I appreciated.

Areas of concern:
Quite a bit of cussing, but no *f* word.
Some pretty intense kissing.
The character of Mark is a transgender cross-dresser.

I'm dipping back into the YA book selections. This is the first book in a trilogy, and it sets up the location and characters and story arc very nicely. It also is a complete story in itself. I liked the touches of paranormal that were not vampires, witches, or were-anything.

Last 5 star of the year and supposedly, a YA to boot. For every reason I loved this story, return to the southern home, crazy family, voodoo, happy endings. I absolutely hate the fact that it is the first of a trilogy and the next book isn't due to hit the shelves until fall 2015. Read it anyway, we have something great to look froward to!

I was really looking forward to reading this book. It sounded like it would have me hooked. Plus I was looking for something different to read than my normal murder mysteries. Ok this book turned out to be a major let down for me. I was expecting this book to be a darker, gritter young adult story. None of the characters intrigued me. In fact, they kind of got on my nerves. The romance I was not feeling at all. Why does it seem like every author thinks that they have to make the main characters fall in love. Not every story has to involve a love story. It is like the author thinks that the girl needs a guy to help them going through whatever they are expericing or needs the guy to solve the problem with them. So anyways back to the book. there was hardly anything of interest happening in the story. I never really saw Barrie use her "gift". In fact, the story had hardly any suspense or action that after half way I went straight to the last two chapters of the bok and read it to see the ending. Which disappointed me of what teh whole big mystery was surrounding the families. I don't think I will be reading the next book in this series.