witchyficbindery's review
2.0
This review is also available at Cornerfolds!
Cats, Scarves and Liars... What can I say about this book? Well, the author doesn't believe in the Oxford comma, so we disagree there. Okay, so that's irrelevant.
This book claims to be an offbeat thriller and it's definitely not lying about the "offbeat" part. I would call it a blend of Amelia Bedelia and Scooby Doo, but I would not label it a thriller. In fact, I'd say the mystery part of the story is pretty predictable. The plot is largely unbelievable and a bit ridiculous, to be honest, but it's a quick read and it did keep me turning pages, so it wasn't a total loss. That being said, the flaws outweighed the positives, unfortunately.
The main character in Cats, Scarves and Liars is Peppa (who is apparently quite forgettable since I had to look that up just now), a recent widow who is apparently the catch of the town while simultaneously being worthy of no one. In fact, Peppa reminds the reader repeatedly of how unworthy she is of Julian (her new main squeeze), which becomes really annoying very early on. She's honestly an extremely confusing character - very wishy washy. For example, when we learn about her previous relationship, she tells us that she stripped to her underwear and let Tom, her dearly departed husband, give her her first big O... but followed this by informing him that she was saving sex for marriage. Not only that, but she criticizes others for sexism while being (previously) married to a misogynistic pig. Tom was a despicable human being. So much so that I cannot understand why Peppa is at all torn up about his death. She knows that he was a piece of crap and she still feels bad about dating. Why? The antagonist in this book is severely disturbed and disgusting. To be honest, he was the best part of the book!
The main plot device in the book was an unusual form of LSD and was really too far fetched for me. The characters were all very one dimensional with not much growth (the main reason it was all so predictable) and the world building could definitely have been better.
I wanted to like Cats, Scarves and Liars, I really did, but I just couldn't get into the story. It's far lighter than what I was hoping for since it was, after all, listed as a thriller (it's on the cover!). I'm not sure I could recommend this book, but maybe that's just because it wasn't my cup of tea. If anyone should read it, it's someone might would enjoy a quick, light, humorous book without much thrill over a weekend.
Cats, Scarves and Liars... What can I say about this book? Well, the author doesn't believe in the Oxford comma, so we disagree there. Okay, so that's irrelevant.
This book claims to be an offbeat thriller and it's definitely not lying about the "offbeat" part. I would call it a blend of Amelia Bedelia and Scooby Doo, but I would not label it a thriller. In fact, I'd say the mystery part of the story is pretty predictable. The plot is largely unbelievable and a bit ridiculous, to be honest, but it's a quick read and it did keep me turning pages, so it wasn't a total loss. That being said, the flaws outweighed the positives, unfortunately.
The main character in Cats, Scarves and Liars is Peppa (who is apparently quite forgettable since I had to look that up just now), a recent widow who is apparently the catch of the town while simultaneously being worthy of no one. In fact, Peppa reminds the reader repeatedly of how unworthy she is of Julian (her new main squeeze), which becomes really annoying very early on. She's honestly an extremely confusing character - very wishy washy. For example, when we learn about her previous relationship, she tells us that she stripped to her underwear and let Tom, her dearly departed husband, give her her first big O... but followed this by informing him that she was saving sex for marriage. Not only that, but she criticizes others for sexism while being (previously) married to a misogynistic pig. Tom was a despicable human being. So much so that I cannot understand why Peppa is at all torn up about his death. She knows that he was a piece of crap and she still feels bad about dating. Why? The antagonist in this book is severely disturbed and disgusting. To be honest, he was the best part of the book!
The main plot device in the book was an unusual form of LSD and was really too far fetched for me. The characters were all very one dimensional with not much growth (the main reason it was all so predictable) and the world building could definitely have been better.
I wanted to like Cats, Scarves and Liars, I really did, but I just couldn't get into the story. It's far lighter than what I was hoping for since it was, after all, listed as a thriller (it's on the cover!). I'm not sure I could recommend this book, but maybe that's just because it wasn't my cup of tea. If anyone should read it, it's someone might would enjoy a quick, light, humorous book without much thrill over a weekend.
trish204's review against another edition
1.0
To begin let me say that 1 star is actually generous!
What really pissed me off were all those typos! This isn't a self-published novel as far as I could find out so there should have been a publisher somewhere in the process which makes the amount of typos in this book simply unacceptable (actually, I've read quite a lot of self-published books and they had either no typos at all or just a few).
Also, reading this book until the very end was a real fight and more than once I was tempted to give up but somehow I always clung to the hope that it would get better - which it unfortunately didn't.
The synopsis sounded great but what the story turned into was simply awful. I'm so happy I was able to get this book via the amazon Kindle library because to have even only spent 2€ would have been a waste.
To be specific, let me give some examples of how awful the book was:
1) The main character, Peppa, is shy and absolutely NOT self-confident. That itself is not a crime, I can totally relate to it. However, in this case the woman was getting even on my nerves with her endless "He's too good for me" crap!
2) After the first 10 pages I knew exactly where at least half of the book was going (who had killed Tony, that their marriage wasn't as peachy as one had thought at first, who Peppa's father/grandfather was, ...)!
3) At approximatly half of the book the author "reveals" the things that were obvious after page 10 in a painstakingly detailed way.
Then you'd think that there was still enough time to turn things around, get some plot twists into the story but nooooo.
4) All characters are very flat. Absolutely no depth to them. Black and white (and both sides are overdrawn).
5) Even hard-core fantasy fans would have a hard time digesting the "supernatural twist" the author worked into this book because it's "explanation" simply makes absolutely no sense (and yes, even fantasy elements need to make sense on a certain level).
...
I could go on and on but the above mentioned points should be enough for everyone to get the idea. I was really sorry to see a story with such a sweet and good idea being turned into such a waste of time. :-(
What really pissed me off were all those typos! This isn't a self-published novel as far as I could find out so there should have been a publisher somewhere in the process which makes the amount of typos in this book simply unacceptable (actually, I've read quite a lot of self-published books and they had either no typos at all or just a few).
Also, reading this book until the very end was a real fight and more than once I was tempted to give up but somehow I always clung to the hope that it would get better - which it unfortunately didn't.
The synopsis sounded great but what the story turned into was simply awful. I'm so happy I was able to get this book via the amazon Kindle library because to have even only spent 2€ would have been a waste.
To be specific, let me give some examples of how awful the book was:
1) The main character, Peppa, is shy and absolutely NOT self-confident. That itself is not a crime, I can totally relate to it. However, in this case the woman was getting even on my nerves with her endless "He's too good for me" crap!
2) After the first 10 pages I knew exactly where at least half of the book was going (who had killed Tony, that their marriage wasn't as peachy as one had thought at first, who Peppa's father/grandfather was, ...)!
3) At approximatly half of the book the author "reveals" the things that were obvious after page 10 in a painstakingly detailed way.
Then you'd think that there was still enough time to turn things around, get some plot twists into the story but nooooo.
4) All characters are very flat. Absolutely no depth to them. Black and white (and both sides are overdrawn).
5) Even hard-core fantasy fans would have a hard time digesting the "supernatural twist" the author worked into this book because it's "explanation" simply makes absolutely no sense (and yes, even fantasy elements need to make sense on a certain level).
...
I could go on and on but the above mentioned points should be enough for everyone to get the idea. I was really sorry to see a story with such a sweet and good idea being turned into such a waste of time. :-(
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