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AmySea

AmySea

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Ride a Pale Horse
Helen MacInnes
The Samurai's Wife
Laura Joh Rowland
Ashes To Dust - Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Philip Roughton, Yrsa Oh, I hate that I'm giving Ashes to Dust one star, because I really like Yrsa Sigurðardóttir! I enjoyed her previous two books in the Thora Gudmundsdottir series, and I'll read the next book in the series. That said, I just didn't like anything about Ashes to Dust!

For me the most disagreeable thing about this book was the way in which women were portrayed. Every woman (except maybe one) in this book was obsessed with appearance, whether that be physical appearance or social appearances. The author pointed out countless times that Thora's secretary, Bella, was fat, unattractive, and sloppy, and it was just annoying and distracting. Once is enough to remind us all about Bella! In addition, I liked Thora from previous books, but in this book she came across as entitled, stuck up, and judgemental. I just didn't care for her in this story at all.

Ok, I could go on about the characters/characterization, but enough. I also found the plot to be rather unoriginal and predictable, and the story moved s-o-o-o-o-o s-l-o-w-l-y. Plot points were just regurgitated over and over with little to no forward movement--the book was almost 400 pages long, and nothing started moving until maybe the last 1/4 of the book! Frankly, the stagnant nature of this story made it so I just didn't care what was going to happen any longer! My interest was never piqued, and I was never drawn in. I didn't like the ending either. I thought that it was improbable and tried too hard to be too clever.

I finished the book because, as I said, I like Sigurðardóttir's writing, and I kept hoping she'd at least have a really great ending. Well. I will give the next book a shot, and hope that it's better than this one was! That said, after reading Ashes to Dust, I'm in no all-fired hurry to place a hold on The Day is Dark.