Having started this year’s TBR Challenge quite late, I now have to put in a bit of extra effort  -in order to catch up. Read this in about a week, which is quite a feat -believe me. So, here goes my first 2010 TBR book review:

Having loved the “Twilight Saga” books, I have to admit it was more a matter of when, than of if I was gonna give “The Host” a spin…

Ms. Meyer’s latest effort features a compelling story line (sure to appeal to most people, but especially sci-fi buffs), presented from a personal point of view -much in the style she used for the Twilight series.

All in all, you’ll be dealing with a relatively long book (600+) pages with a bit of a slow start that, however, evolves into a much more interesting read -should you manage to stick with it (and yes, I do know of many who didn’t). The characters are intriguing enough (despite the fact that they could certainly have afforded a bit more “depth”) and the ending is overall satisfying to the average reader.

To put it in a nutshell, considering the level of expectations I imagine most will have upon purchasing, the book manages to deliver. I would thus have no particular qualms about recommending it, especially to people who have been known to enjoy Stephenie Meyer’s earlier body of work…

After reading Sarah Waters’ “The Night Watch”, the “Customers who bought this, also bought…” feature on Amazon recommended this.

The Synopsis intrigued me (I love me a good mystery/ghost story), so I decided I’d give it a try…

I waited for what seemed like ages for the book to make its way to one of my local bookstores and -failing that- I eventually went ahead and ordered it online. Maybe it was all the wait, or the brilliant 4 and 5 star reviews it got from other readers but I, somehow, expected more…

It took me forever to get into this -despite the funny and original narrative- and, once I did (after about the 1st half of the story had painstakingly gone by), it was only to be let down by a largely anti-climactic (in my humbe opinion) finale.

Maybe it’s just me but a book shouldn’t require such an effort to enthrall you in the first place, only to come to such an abrupt and minimalistic end 😦

That said, “The Observations” wasn’t an all around bad effort. The writing style was indeed refreshing and the book managed to provide both some precious laugh-out-loud moments and some food for thought. If only the conclusion of the story had been a bit more complicated and developed, it would have made a great read.