Author: A. Meredith Walters

BOOK REVIEW – One Day Soon (One Day Soon #1) by A. Meredith Walters

October 28, 2016 / Anna

One Day Soon (One Day Soon #1)
by A. Meredith Walters
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
He found me in blood and tears.
I stayed with him through darkness and fire.

We loved each other in the moment between innocence and bitter truth.
We were the kids easily ignored, who grew into adults we hardly knew.

We weren’t meant to last forever. And we didn’t.

He ran away.
I tried to move on.

Yet I never stopped thinking about the boy who had fought to keep me alive in a world that would have swallowed me whole. He was the past that I buried, but never forgot.

Until the day I found him again, years after believing I had lost him forever.

And in cold, resentful eyes, I saw the heart of the man who had been everything when I had nothing at all. So I vowed to hold onto the second chance that was stolen from the children we had been.

Sometimes fate is ugly. Life can be twisted.
And who we are can be ruined by who we once were.

For two people who had survived so much, we would have to learn how to hold on before we were forced to let go.

► DNF. Because. This. Gives. Me. An. Headache.

THIS :

“He smiled and I smiled. It was sort of contagious.”

That… is what contagious means.

“He laughed and it was real and true and I felt it absolutely everywhere.”

NO SHIT. Please give specifics.

“He had been my moon. My stars. My everything when I had nothing at all.”

*snorts* *feels like a cold-hearted bitch* *snorts again*

I’m sorry, but this is horribly written – it’s formulaic, cheesy, eye-roll-worthy material.

“Karla was giving me the ubiquitous once over I was used to from other females. (…) [She] gave me a nasty look, which I returned blankly.”

Oh, isn’t that nice? A little girl hate action utterly uncalled for! (Also WTF at females really???!)

Also, THIS :

“What had I ever done to him to deserve this kind of reception? When had his love transformed into this?”

OMG! I know this one!! This, my girl, is what we call The Big Misunderstanding. Don’t worry, you’ll get over it, but you’ll have to annoy the fuck out of me for 200 pages before you reach your Happily Ever After.

► Oh, fuck this. I can’t do it. Please, do me a favor and remind me to stop trying this author, because she’s definitely not for me.

BOOK REVIEW: Reclaiming the Sand by A. Meredith Walters

March 18, 2015 / Chelsea / 0 Comments

Reclaiming the Sand (Reclaiming the Sand #1)
by A. Meredith Walters
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Bully and victim.
Tormenter and tormented.
Villain and hero.

Ellie McCallum was a bully. No connection to anyone or anything. A sad and lonely existence for a young woman who had come to expect nothing more for herself. Her only happiness coming from making others miserable.

Particularly Freaky Flynn.

Flynn Hendrick lived a life completely disconnected even as he struggled to become something more than that boy with Asperger's. He was taunted and teased, bearing the brunt of systematic and calculated cruelty, ultimately culminating in a catastrophic turn of events that brought Ellie and Flynn’s worlds crashing down.

But then Flynn and Ellie grew up.

And moved on.

Until years later when their paths unexpectedly cross again and the bully and the freak are face to face once more.

When labels come to define you, finding yourself feels impossible. Particularly for two people disconnected from the world who inexplicably find a connection in each other.

And out of the wreckage of their tragic beginnings, an unlikely love story unfolds.

But a painful past doesn’t always want to let go. And old wounds are never truly healed…and sometimes the further you try to run from yourself the closer you come to who you really are.

So…..I don’t have a ton to say about this book, other than I was severely disappointed. I’ve recently fallen in love with a book that has the whole ‘Mean Girls’ and bullying thing going on, so I really wanted to find another book like that-bullying wise. I’ve also recently started to realize I am in LOVE with flawed characters….especially of the male variety. So, naturally, I figured this book would be a slam dunk-and all my friends mostly seemed to love it.

Well, I’m only posting this review so I can clearly voice my displeasure: This book was moronic. From the cheesy dialogue to the overly mean friends who can only be described as villains in a sad B-list movie(am I saying that correctly?? I mean A HORRIBLE WANNABE BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE), this book had very little going for it. In fact, the one thing it had in its favor? I can’t even remember his name-this book is THAT forgettable. I loved the guy from the very beginning-he was sweet, kind, and he broke my heart. But that’s literally the only reason I finished.

As for the plot?? Also moronic. Why advertise a book like it’s present day when all the bad shit happens years ago??? I didn’t sign up for flashbacks, thank you very much. It was weird and it halted the story horribly and when it did become all present day, it was boring boring boring. I just wanted it to be over. Like…..I FORCED myself to finish this-but I should have called it a day from the first cheesy moment-it all went downhill from there.

So…Not much to say, really, that I haven’t already said. I have no clue why so many of my friends gave this such a high rating. Call me a bitch, but I didn’t feel even an ounce of the angst or see a smidgen of the beauty that was talked about. It was very sad, sure, but these were deplorable characters who did deplorable things….what else is there to the story aside from, errrr, Flynn? Is that it? He was the only character I cared about. So, ya know, everyone seemed to love this and none of my friends rated low…but me, Anna, and Jen certainly had no qualms about posting big, fat 2s on the record. Hopefully you’ll find something to love about this book. I just found personal torture.

********************************

Yeaaaaah this book wasn’t very good….not at all what I had expected and as it got later in the story, the dialogue became so cheesy (not Flynn, never Flynn) it was a struggle to finish. Man am I on a roll.

2 stars for Flynn.

Review to come

*****

Buddy read with Anna and Jen!

BOOK REVIEW – Reclaiming the Sand (Reclaiming the Sand #1) by A. Meredith Walters

March 14, 2015 / Anna

Reclaiming the Sand (Reclaiming the Sand #1)
by A. Meredith Walters
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Bully and victim.
Tormenter and tormented.
Villain and hero.

Ellie McCallum was a bully. No connection to anyone or anything. A sad and lonely existence for a young woman who had come to expect nothing more for herself. Her only happiness coming from making others miserable.

Particularly Freaky Flynn.

Flynn Hendrick lived a life completely disconnected even as he struggled to become something more than that boy with Asperger's. He was taunted and teased, bearing the brunt of systematic and calculated cruelty, ultimately culminating in a catastrophic turn of events that brought Ellie and Flynn’s worlds crashing down.

But then Flynn and Ellie grew up.

And moved on.

Until years later when their paths unexpectedly cross again and the bully and the freak are face to face once more.

▒ Buddy Read with my favorite Indy girl Chelsea ▒

I love reviewing books, I really do. Yet sometimes I come across a book which I don’t want to review at all. That can be because I’m too overwhelmed or pissed, annoyed or confused or underwhelmed. Why am I feeling it here? After having struggled to put my finger on what bothered me, I’ve come to the conclusion that my main problem with this book is the fact that although I did feel all these contradictory emotions through my read, I end feeling hollow in the end.

As you can guess, I don’t like this sensation at all.

#PlotLacking aka I’m not impressed that much

The story was going nowhere. I’m sorry but it’s true. That’s my truth, anyway. Of course we can argue that it’s a journey to forgiveness and acceptance – of course. Yet while the first half did a very good job at setting the scene and introducing these mostly awful characters, the second part lost me at some point. Perhaps I missed something, but in my opinion the story started to drag without real aim, except for waiting for the big revelation that we just KNEW would shatter everything. Don’t get me wrong, I was expecting the angst, I really was, but while I thought I was okay with it I realized pretty fast that it was the kind of angst I can’t stand : the “I-know-what-will-happen-and-I’m-dreading-it” kind of angst. I can’t help but loathe it, because in my opinion that’s the easiest kind of angst. The easiest way to make readers feel and to ensure the success of the book. Sorry but I’m not buying it, I’m just annoyed.

#IWantYouToRotInHell aka Why, hello, awful characters!

Now, I don’t think I’m picky with characters and I know that I have in me to love evil characters. Hell, I adored Jorg from The Broken Empire and he’s such a sick devil. So, nah, I wasn’t particularly worried before starting it. But damn, I didn’t expect to meet such DUMB SICK BASTARDS. I’ll keep it short because I’m feeling judgmental toward them but COME. ON. There’s only so many craps I can take, and when the characters make you feel the urge to SKIM whole parts of the book (I resisted), that’s problematic, right?

► Dania : You evil irresponsible BITCH. I can overtake a lot of things, but not only this girl is mean, manipulative, but she fucking continues to drink and take drug while she’s PREGNANT and that made me rage. Fucking RAGE because she’s so STUPID and SELFISH.

► Stu & Shane : What a bunch of selfish sick and disgusting bastards. I don’t even want to talk about them.

► Ellie : What can I say about our main character? Did I hate her? Oh yes I did. Yet I tried to understand her, I really tried, and I can’t deny that she managed to move me several times – But damn, it seemed that each time I was starting to warm a little to her she HAD to do something stupid or mean or selfish – not to mention the flashbacks that destroyed any pretention to like her I could have. Seeing her sick behavior through Flynn’s eyes made me often want to slap her and call her on a shit because what a COWARD. Seriously. Oh, excuse me, am I supposed to feel sorry for her? The truth is, I could have. Really. Because she was put into a considerable amount of shit in her life, I must admit. But despite her evolution, despite the cute moments, despite all that can be seen as beautiful in their story, in the end, I’m leaving her with a bitter aftertaste.

✘ I’m not sure what the story is supposed to teach us. That love overtakes everything? I hate this message. No, I don’t think serial-killers and dictators deserve to be loved, I’m mean like that. Therefore even though Ellie is far from being a serial-killer, I JUST CAN’T ROOT FOR HER AND FLYNN. I fucking can’t and I’m not sorry for it, because her bunch of friends and her aren’t anything but cowards, assholes, and BULLIES.

▨ Why would you want to read it? Well, for Flynn of course.

► Flynn : Meet this adorable, kind and smart man, whose utter and complete love for Ellie makes him forgive her for EVERYTHING and makes me want to shake him. To be frank, what bothered me the most is the fact that I can’t understand WHY Flynn wants to be Ellie’s friend in the first place, let alone LOVES her. Don’t get me wrong, I adored him (how couldn’t I?) yet a little part of me stays mad because HE DESERVES BETTER ← See? That was me being a judgmental bitch. And I’m not even sorry for that.

#BigMissOnMe aka Maybe this book isn’t for me

Finally, I can look at all the aspects of the problem, if I’m being frank, here’s what I think : if I was giving the choice to read it knowing how I would feel in the end, I wouldn’t read it.

▨ As for the ending?

Totally anticlimactic.

Therefore I can’t decently give it a positive rating, even if I can’t deny that it was well-written. This being said, I can understand why people loved it, their reviews point really well why this book is beautiful – but all this touching beauty was completely lost on me and I can’t base my rating on what I am SUPPOSED to feel. Because even if there were some parts where I felt overwhelmed, most of the time it was just the opposite : underwhelming and disappointing.

✘Conclusion? This book wasn’t for me. Let me just forget it now.