Review: Good but not a home run for me like the others...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 10, 2013
This is the fourth in the Games series and I have loved every one of them…except this one. And I really, REALLY wanted to love this one. However, when it is held up against the standard set by the other three books, I found this one, well, lacking.Let me explain…I love the main character, Kandis. I love that she was flawed from the beginning, I love that she was trite enough to be a Zumba instructor – a cliche who really wasn’t cliche at all. But, I couldn’t stand Brodie. I tried, I really did. And it wasn’t because he was the villain in the second book.I just found him so over-the-top ridiculous, especially several points of his dialogue that I caught myself rolling my eyes at him. He wasn’t just a playboy, that would have fit his character. It was the stupid, 70s porn-star comments he made at points. I was almost laughing at the ridiculousness of it. In all honesty, he was the same kind of tool you’d expect to find on Big Brother (I mean, House Guests).And I will say, Brodie was the ONLY down side to this book which I think made it even more disappointing. I have loved every one of the heroes/heroines in the Games novels. I even enjoyed the reappearance of Brodie’s sister, Katy and her hero, Liam.The plot, the games, the minor characters…every bit of the story had me feeling like I was watching a marathon of Big Brother and I loved that. By the time I finished the book (only 2 hrs later) I was praying that her next Games story (yes, there is one!) would be about Jenden. In fact, I would have liked to see more of him instead of Brodie in this one.In spite of my dislike of Brodie’s character (did I mention I didn’t like him), I still really enjoyed the book and would read it again. This one was more on the steamy side compared to the others but the plot kept me guessing and I wasn’t about to guess who was getting voted out (the sign of a good reality show!) at any eviction. Just when I thought I knew, I was wrong. Anything that can do that has some major props from me.The writing style on this one is very tight. Almost too tight. There were several places where I wanted to know more, even if it wasn’t necessary. I craved more. And, to me, that is the sign of a worthwhile story – you don’t want to say goodbye to the characters at the end. I’d recommend this one but after the other three.