LOVE ME with LIES SERIES
by Tarryn Fisher
THE OPPORTUNIST
I. Am. Screaming.
and I can't even put any other thoughts together because it's six in the morning and I've stayed up all night with this damn thing. and now I'm pissed that I cannot keep my eyes open any longer because I need to read the next one like NOW. How could you leave them like that HOW?! god damn it. I need sleep. will possibly edit this when I can think straight again. bye.
PS: I hate this so much and simultaneously want to give it more than 5 stars. I love/hate it. GRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr
*this is as eloquent as it gets at 6am when my effing heart is SHATTERED
*EDIT: okay, now that I've calmed down and stopped screaming, I just want to say how much I love the title. You think you know who The Opportunist is, but it fits multiple characters and AAAAHH. (sorry I guess I haven't stopped screaming).
DIRTY RED
These books are a freaking drug. I did NOTHING with my Saturday except read them. I've never read so fast and so much in such a short span of time. I stayed up with the first until 6am, slept for 5 hours, then read this book all day long and have already worked halfway through the third. Unputdownable. Thank goodness I didn't discover these until the entire series was released. I might have actually died if I had to wait the year-long gaps as they were being published.
I love/hated this one just like the first-- for different reasons, but still. It was interesting to get inside the evil bitch's head. I got to see exactly how justified I was in hating her so much. I can see how some may be able to pity her after this but I am not among them. And I just can't even remember anything else I wanted to say because I need to get back to Thief.
THIEF
All right. Twelve and a half meltdowns later and I've finished this series.
There is nothing worse than predictability, and no book has ever thrown me for more loops than this series. I loved every wonderfully frustrating second. Well, almost. There were a few hundred times I had to refrain from hurling my Nook at the wall, but all three of these books kept me on my toes and I LOVE that.
and I love Olivia so freaking much. and Caleb... what do I even say about Caleb except, where is my British man who reads and listens to Coldplay and smells like Christmas and loves me more than anything in the universe??
Gah these people have killed me.
Ten out of five <3
MUD VEIN
by Tarryn Fisher
adult // dark // kidnapping
Oh god that star rating hurts my heart.
I love Tarryn’s writing. She is deeply talented and unquestionably bold in her storytelling. She isn’t afraid to cut into the darkest facets of human nature with her words and let her stories spill out around the jagged edges. She refuses to conform, to gloss over the unpleasant, to recycle the same shallow leading characters we see everywhere else. Her Love Me with Lies series was unputdownable. I didn’t leave my room for two days because I couldn’t focus on anything but Olivia and Caleb. I almost broke my Nook several times because I was so riled up over the story. It got under my skin and pulled at my heart and I was SO EXCITED when I found out about Mud Vein.
And then I read Mud Vein.
I stand by everything I already said about Tarryn’s writing. She has a great talent and doesn’t care what anyone expects of her, and that is fantastic. But, sadly, this book did nothing for me. From the blurb, I was expecting this intense, shocking, fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat mystery… but it just kind of fizzled out in a slow, depressing spiral.
I blame my negativity about this book squarely on the main character. Going back to Love Me with Lies for a minute, Olivia was a fantastic character for me. She had a dark side and she was a little bit “evil”, but you could always understand her motivation and root for her to succeed. She was an interesting, exciting, passionate person with a strong personality that made me want to keep reading, keep rooting for her. Senna lacked ALL of this. There was nothing compelling about her in the least. I’m still trying to figure out what on earth possessed Isaac to put his life on hold for this woman who never spoke to him, never interacted with him in any way, couldn’t even muster a word of comfort for him when he lost a patient. She never showed the slightest interest in getting to know him or anyone or anything. Do I understand why not one but TWO men fell in love with this girl? NOPE. On top of her extreme mental instability, which could have been dealt with, she simply had no personality. I feel completely detached from her. What was there to hold onto, to root for, to care about?
The most memorable Senna moment for me was when she said, “I just hate croutons so much”, because it was funny and I was DESPERATE for her to crack that impenetrable exterior just a little bit more and allow herself to be witty and the slightest bit conversational. She was just a hollow shell of a person no matter how many men and tragic events were thrown at her.
Oh I almost forgot about the kidnapping. So, I did not guess the kidnapper, but I also didn’t really care…? It was just another letdown, really, because it was anticlimactic and didn’t make much sense.
My overall reaction to this book is disappointment, but I can see how it will resonate with some. Just not for me. I am still a Tarryn fan and I’ll be eagerly awaiting whatever is up next.
favorite quote
"You want your freedom until you get it, then you feel bare without your chains."
