aknas22's review
2.0
This book was ok, not sure why I didn't really like it. Guess it was a combination of factors, the main character and the story-seemed like nothing really happened- included. not sure if I will read the next book. I do like Ms. Black's Morgan Kingsley series so I might try this one again.
wessannaaa's review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
novelheartbeat's review
3.0
From my blog Auntie Spinelli Reads
The hardest reviews to write are for books that didn't inspire much of anything in me either way - love or hate. This was one of those. It was good, but not great. It was a quick and light read and I don't regret reading it, but I don't think I would read it again.
I had mixed feelings about Dana. She was an alright lead, but she annoyed me at times. First of all, she was selfish. She ran away from her mother because she was a raging alcoholic. A mother that could barely even function: Dana always did everything for her. I know it's hard, but if she has to do everything, how is her mother going to fend for herself when she's not there? That irked me.
She wasn't overly weak, thankfully. She did cry a few times, but not enough to annoy me. She got in a good crotch kick and dumped her mocha over some dirtbag's face, so that earned some respectful brownie points from me. But, when it came to guys was when she really irritated me. The fact that being TOTALLY HAWT can excuse any guy of being a total asshat really lowered my opinion of her. While Ethan did grow on me by the end, in the beginning he was an arrogant prick that wasn't even the least bit charming - but hey, he's hawt. 'Cause that's all that matters, right? Same for Keane. He was even worse than Ethan. But he was so totally dreamy, so that's perfectly fine!
I did kinda feel sorry for Dana, though - she kept getting pushed and pulled around in every direction by people wanting to use her, and none of it was even her fault. She was almost a prisoner and didn't have much free will to make her own choices.
I felt like the sexual content was a little high for YA. I don't mind it in the least bit, but I definitely don't suggest this for a younger teen. There were quite a few innuendos, such as a guy being 'eager' (in the pants), and the back of a wagon is more comfortable than the backseat of a car - if you know what I mean. Even the make-out scene got really in depth to the point where I felt it was almost too steamy for YA. And why was Dana thinking that a first kiss automatically meant it was going to lead to sex? This bothered me for some reason.
Oh, by the way, did I mention that Ethan was hot?
All in all, a decent read. The idea of Faeriewalkers was pretty cool, and so was the Glimmerglass. There was plenty of action and danger. It was a fast paced read and easy to understand, but not very deep. Will I be reading the second book? Maybe down the road, but not right now.
Favorite character: Kimber. She was a little bitchy in the beginning, but I ended up really liking her. She reminded me a bit of myself!
ASSESSMENT
Plot: 3/5
Writing style: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
World-building: 3.5/5
Pace: 4/5
Cover: 4/5
The hardest reviews to write are for books that didn't inspire much of anything in me either way - love or hate. This was one of those. It was good, but not great. It was a quick and light read and I don't regret reading it, but I don't think I would read it again.
I had mixed feelings about Dana. She was an alright lead, but she annoyed me at times. First of all, she was selfish. She ran away from her mother because she was a raging alcoholic. A mother that could barely even function: Dana always did everything for her. I know it's hard, but if she has to do everything, how is her mother going to fend for herself when she's not there? That irked me.
She wasn't overly weak, thankfully. She did cry a few times, but not enough to annoy me. She got in a good crotch kick and dumped her mocha over some dirtbag's face, so that earned some respectful brownie points from me. But, when it came to guys was when she really irritated me. The fact that being TOTALLY HAWT can excuse any guy of being a total asshat really lowered my opinion of her. While Ethan did grow on me by the end, in the beginning he was an arrogant prick that wasn't even the least bit charming - but hey, he's hawt. 'Cause that's all that matters, right? Same for Keane. He was even worse than Ethan. But he was so totally dreamy, so that's perfectly fine!
I did kinda feel sorry for Dana, though - she kept getting pushed and pulled around in every direction by people wanting to use her, and none of it was even her fault. She was almost a prisoner and didn't have much free will to make her own choices.
I felt like the sexual content was a little high for YA. I don't mind it in the least bit, but I definitely don't suggest this for a younger teen. There were quite a few innuendos, such as a guy being 'eager' (in the pants), and the back of a wagon is more comfortable than the backseat of a car - if you know what I mean. Even the make-out scene got really in depth to the point where I felt it was almost too steamy for YA. And why was Dana thinking that a first kiss automatically meant it was going to lead to sex? This bothered me for some reason.
Oh, by the way, did I mention that Ethan was hot?
All in all, a decent read. The idea of Faeriewalkers was pretty cool, and so was the Glimmerglass. There was plenty of action and danger. It was a fast paced read and easy to understand, but not very deep. Will I be reading the second book? Maybe down the road, but not right now.
Favorite character: Kimber. She was a little bitchy in the beginning, but I ended up really liking her. She reminded me a bit of myself!
ASSESSMENT
Plot: 3/5
Writing style: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
World-building: 3.5/5
Pace: 4/5
Cover: 4/5
sc104906's review
2.0
Dana's mother is a drunk and she refuses to take anymore of it. She packs up and runs away to her father's, whom she has never met (and he is also the person who Dana's mother has kept the two on the run from). Dana's father is big in politics and as it turns out, because she is his daughter (and some other spoiler reasons) Dana is a great pawn to use in this arena. When arriving in Avalon the place between England and the Faerie world, Dana is kidnapped by many people and doesn't know who to trust. All of the boys are uber hot, but there is no decent romance plot. The characters are flat and the story is boring. I didn't like this book. Jeez, Dana gets embarrassed way too quickly, even for a pure teen. *bleck*
kblincoln's review
4.0
Dana Hathaway's mother is a drunk. When she shows up to the latest recital, embarassing Dana and blowing her cover of being a normal girl skyhigh, Dana decides anything would be better than staying with her mother.
So she runs away to Avalan. Literally. Outside of London is a mountain where one city of Faerie and one city in the normal world overlap. While both humans and faerie can coexist in the city, neither can enter the world of the other....except for those rare beings called faeriewalkers.
Dana knows her father is faerie, but her mother has kept secret all these years how powerful he is. When she arrives in Avalon, her aunt kidnaps her for her own "safety".
Then two more faerie (including a cute "young" faerie named Ethan) she's never seen before kidnap her away from her aunt, she's attacked by Spriggans, finds her father, realizes everyone is lying to her to manipulate her for their own gain both as her father's daughter and because, you guessed it, she's a faeriewalker.
Dana's voice is a hoot to read. Watching her fall into Ethan's arms while she has all the clues he's playing her was painful in a high-school way, and I enjoyed how she worked through anger and betrayal to form a different kind of relationship.
I also liked how Dana's evolving relationships with her father and the bodyguard, Finn, who almost gets killed for her.
The relationship with her drunk mother felt a little problematic to me. Dana has taken care of her mother for so long, I expected more hate and resentment feelings mixed up within the love, whereas Dana seemed to express mostly caring for her mother.
This Book's Food Designation Rating: Cheddar Kettle Chips for Dana's story being easy to read, along with the crisp fun-flavored characters and their interesting relationships.
So she runs away to Avalan. Literally. Outside of London is a mountain where one city of Faerie and one city in the normal world overlap. While both humans and faerie can coexist in the city, neither can enter the world of the other....except for those rare beings called faeriewalkers.
Dana knows her father is faerie, but her mother has kept secret all these years how powerful he is. When she arrives in Avalon, her aunt kidnaps her for her own "safety".
Then two more faerie (including a cute "young" faerie named Ethan) she's never seen before kidnap her away from her aunt, she's attacked by Spriggans, finds her father, realizes everyone is lying to her to manipulate her for their own gain both as her father's daughter and because, you guessed it, she's a faeriewalker.
Dana's voice is a hoot to read. Watching her fall into Ethan's arms while she has all the clues he's playing her was painful in a high-school way, and I enjoyed how she worked through anger and betrayal to form a different kind of relationship.
I also liked how Dana's evolving relationships with her father and the bodyguard, Finn, who almost gets killed for her.
The relationship with her drunk mother felt a little problematic to me. Dana has taken care of her mother for so long, I expected more hate and resentment feelings mixed up within the love, whereas Dana seemed to express mostly caring for her mother.
This Book's Food Designation Rating: Cheddar Kettle Chips for Dana's story being easy to read, along with the crisp fun-flavored characters and their interesting relationships.
lestaslettering's review
1.0
Even the 45% I had to suffer through was painfully cringy.
The biggest DNF in the history of DNF!!
Both the MCs are insufferable, annoying. I felt second hand embarrassment with their every interaction.
The biggest DNF in the history of DNF!!
Both the MCs are insufferable, annoying. I felt second hand embarrassment with their every interaction.
impybelle's review
3.0
You know those books you read fairly quickly, and enjoy as you do so (it's no big chore to read them), but after you've finished you'd be hardpressed to describe the book to someone else?
Glimmerglass is like that for me. I read it. I enjoyed it, even when I wished Dana would stick to her vow not to do something totally stupid as she did something totally stupid, but when I was done it kind of floated away from me.
I enjoyed a few characters, could have probably done without a few more, and I'm optimistic about the next book.
Glimmerglass is like that for me. I read it. I enjoyed it, even when I wished Dana would stick to her vow not to do something totally stupid as she did something totally stupid, but when I was done it kind of floated away from me.
I enjoyed a few characters, could have probably done without a few more, and I'm optimistic about the next book.
disconightwing's review
2.0
Glimmerglass: the first young adult novel EVER to make me feel more pity for the alcoholic mom than our plucky young herone.
Our main character, Dana, is sixteen years old and has moved several times due to her mother trying to keep her under the radar of her Fae father. She is at a recital (she has a naturally beautiful voice because she's half Fae, and it is the only naturally beautiful thing about her, I swear) when her falling down drunk mother shows up, having driven herself to the recital, and embarrasses the ever living crap out of her. She decides the best course of action to combat this embarrassment is to run away to Avalon and live with her father, who has no idea she even exists. She finds out she has all these spectacular powers that make everyone want her. There is a big bad, and the master plan is LITERALLY “you will do what I want and I will be Queen forever!”
Apparently in this world, the Fae exist and everyone knows about them, and though they live in Faerie and not on our world, but the independent nation of Avalon is the place where Fae and humans can coexist. They're off the coast of Great Britain, and it is apparently a mountain. I'm not sure if it's the King Arthur Avalon or not, but I'd assume that's the case.
There isn't a love triangle in this book! It is a crush fourgy. I'll get into the crush fourgy later.
In case you've missed it thus far, there are enough plot holes in this novel to build an interstate. I could put the plot holes in the order of what pissed me off the most, but I'm not sure I can even accomplish that. It's that bad.
For starters—okay, what kind of teacher sees that her underage student has a mother who clearly can't care for her and will most likely put her in danger by sticking her in a car and driving home drunk, and then says “oh that's too bad?” Why was social services not called right then? More importantly, why wasn't ANYONE called at any point? Why is it that Dana never once tried to get someone to talk to her mother, or any of the teachers, guidance counselors, or principals who probably looked at her transcripts and saw that they moved a million and two times didn't ask what was going on?
Well, the answer to this question is probably “so Dana had one more thing to bitch about.” Seriously, this girl. She was the biggest BRAT. She doesn't like being the adult all the time so she RUNS AWAY. And spends the better part of the novel reminding the reader that she's the adult and how bad it is to never be able to have friends because she has to move so often. She gets kidnapped and bitches about how hard the bed is. She gets kidnapped from the kidnappers and whines because she's put on a sofa. She befriends the kidnappers and is moved to the female's (Kimber's) dorm room. She can't stay with Ethan because he is hawt and a bad boy/player and there is instant attraction. But the couch in Kimber's dorm room is too hard. She moves to a safe house that has a cot. She FINALLY gets to her father's house and what's the first thing she notices? She has to sleep on a futon. Boo freaking hoo.
I just think that if someone's going to talk about their unfortunate circumstances and how hard it is and how broke they are, they're probably not going to bitch all the time when people are trying to help them out. Okay, so the kidnappers, maybe not so much. But if she's grown to like the kidnappers, then is there really a point in talking about how shitty their hospitality is when she could have been sleeping on the floor? I would have put her on the floor. Kimber gives her clothes to wear so she can wash hers and how does she refer to them? “Kimber's cast offs.”
And then the whole romance aspect goes something like this: Ethan, kidnapper number 2 (along with Kimber), is hot, so she feels attracted to him. But he's a player and he uses her, so she runs away. He catches up with her and offers to hide her somewhere else because the political climate is dangerous, and she's the only person in 75 years who can coexist in Faerie and the human world. And there is some election going on for some kind of political position, and whoever controls her will probably win, so she's wanted by three people: her aunt Grace (the first kidnapper), her father (Seamus. What kind of name is Seamus for a fairy anyway?) and Alistair, who is Ethan and Kimber's father. Upon learning that she's a Faeriewalker and that all of these super powerful people are after her and, at this point, having NO reason to be distrustful of the people who have put her up and let her mooch off of them, asks if she can't have a hotel room. When Ethan agrees, albeit reluctantly, the only thing she really thinks about it is how small it is.
Anyway, the romance. So there's Ethan, whom she really does not get to know in any way, and when she runs away from him, there's Finn, who is her bodyguard who's been hired by her father. By the way, her father? Actually not a bad dude. Finally gives her the parental guidance that she claims she wants, and she ends up running away when her mom comes to Avalon to find her. It kind of negates the whole novel, since she ran away because she doesn't want to be the adult to her mother anymore. And then Finn the bodyguard has a son named Keane and he's got the instant attraction thing going on too. Nothing really happens between her and any of these people, except one kiss with Ethan before he's conveniently plucked from the storyline for a while, so after reading the whole novel, I can't even say if I'd rather her eventually end up with Ethan or Keane. I won't say Finn since he's way older than her and she can't really be serious about having a crush on the son and the father. Gross.
So in summary: she runs away, gets kidnapped, gets kidnapped from the kidnappers, befriends the second set of kidnappers, runs away, meets her father, runs away from him, almost gets her mother killed, gets pissed off because she gets grounded for running away. And complains because she's not staying at the Ritz. Or the Hilton, really... the Avalon Hilton. Where her mom stays.
Oh yeah. And “I will be Queen forever!”? Actual quote.
Our main character, Dana, is sixteen years old and has moved several times due to her mother trying to keep her under the radar of her Fae father. She is at a recital (she has a naturally beautiful voice because she's half Fae, and it is the only naturally beautiful thing about her, I swear) when her falling down drunk mother shows up, having driven herself to the recital, and embarrasses the ever living crap out of her. She decides the best course of action to combat this embarrassment is to run away to Avalon and live with her father, who has no idea she even exists. She finds out she has all these spectacular powers that make everyone want her. There is a big bad, and the master plan is LITERALLY “you will do what I want and I will be Queen forever!”
Apparently in this world, the Fae exist and everyone knows about them, and though they live in Faerie and not on our world, but the independent nation of Avalon is the place where Fae and humans can coexist. They're off the coast of Great Britain, and it is apparently a mountain. I'm not sure if it's the King Arthur Avalon or not, but I'd assume that's the case.
There isn't a love triangle in this book! It is a crush fourgy. I'll get into the crush fourgy later.
In case you've missed it thus far, there are enough plot holes in this novel to build an interstate. I could put the plot holes in the order of what pissed me off the most, but I'm not sure I can even accomplish that. It's that bad.
For starters—okay, what kind of teacher sees that her underage student has a mother who clearly can't care for her and will most likely put her in danger by sticking her in a car and driving home drunk, and then says “oh that's too bad?” Why was social services not called right then? More importantly, why wasn't ANYONE called at any point? Why is it that Dana never once tried to get someone to talk to her mother, or any of the teachers, guidance counselors, or principals who probably looked at her transcripts and saw that they moved a million and two times didn't ask what was going on?
Well, the answer to this question is probably “so Dana had one more thing to bitch about.” Seriously, this girl. She was the biggest BRAT. She doesn't like being the adult all the time so she RUNS AWAY. And spends the better part of the novel reminding the reader that she's the adult and how bad it is to never be able to have friends because she has to move so often. She gets kidnapped and bitches about how hard the bed is. She gets kidnapped from the kidnappers and whines because she's put on a sofa. She befriends the kidnappers and is moved to the female's (Kimber's) dorm room. She can't stay with Ethan because he is hawt and a bad boy/player and there is instant attraction. But the couch in Kimber's dorm room is too hard. She moves to a safe house that has a cot. She FINALLY gets to her father's house and what's the first thing she notices? She has to sleep on a futon. Boo freaking hoo.
I just think that if someone's going to talk about their unfortunate circumstances and how hard it is and how broke they are, they're probably not going to bitch all the time when people are trying to help them out. Okay, so the kidnappers, maybe not so much. But if she's grown to like the kidnappers, then is there really a point in talking about how shitty their hospitality is when she could have been sleeping on the floor? I would have put her on the floor. Kimber gives her clothes to wear so she can wash hers and how does she refer to them? “Kimber's cast offs.”
And then the whole romance aspect goes something like this: Ethan, kidnapper number 2 (along with Kimber), is hot, so she feels attracted to him. But he's a player and he uses her, so she runs away. He catches up with her and offers to hide her somewhere else because the political climate is dangerous, and she's the only person in 75 years who can coexist in Faerie and the human world. And there is some election going on for some kind of political position, and whoever controls her will probably win, so she's wanted by three people: her aunt Grace (the first kidnapper), her father (Seamus. What kind of name is Seamus for a fairy anyway?) and Alistair, who is Ethan and Kimber's father. Upon learning that she's a Faeriewalker and that all of these super powerful people are after her and, at this point, having NO reason to be distrustful of the people who have put her up and let her mooch off of them, asks if she can't have a hotel room. When Ethan agrees, albeit reluctantly, the only thing she really thinks about it is how small it is.
Anyway, the romance. So there's Ethan, whom she really does not get to know in any way, and when she runs away from him, there's Finn, who is her bodyguard who's been hired by her father. By the way, her father? Actually not a bad dude. Finally gives her the parental guidance that she claims she wants, and she ends up running away when her mom comes to Avalon to find her. It kind of negates the whole novel, since she ran away because she doesn't want to be the adult to her mother anymore. And then Finn the bodyguard has a son named Keane and he's got the instant attraction thing going on too. Nothing really happens between her and any of these people, except one kiss with Ethan before he's conveniently plucked from the storyline for a while, so after reading the whole novel, I can't even say if I'd rather her eventually end up with Ethan or Keane. I won't say Finn since he's way older than her and she can't really be serious about having a crush on the son and the father. Gross.
So in summary: she runs away, gets kidnapped, gets kidnapped from the kidnappers, befriends the second set of kidnappers, runs away, meets her father, runs away from him, almost gets her mother killed, gets pissed off because she gets grounded for running away. And complains because she's not staying at the Ritz. Or the Hilton, really... the Avalon Hilton. Where her mom stays.
Oh yeah. And “I will be Queen forever!”? Actual quote.