*Review* Kiss of Broken Glass – Madeleine Kuderick

 Kiss of Broken Glass

Madeleine Kuderick

224 pages

Read 10-16-14

Source: Library

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 Madeleine Kuderick’s gripping debut is a darkly beautiful and lyrical novel in verse, perfect for fans of Sonya Sones and Laurie Halse Anderson. Kiss of Broken Glass pulses with emotion and lingers long after the last page.

In the next seventy-two hours, Kenna may lose everything—her friends, her freedom, and maybe even herself. One kiss of the blade was all it took to get her sent to the psych ward for seventy-two hours. There she will face her addiction to cutting, though the outcome is far from certain.

When fifteen-year-old Kenna is found cutting herself in the school bathroom, she is sent to a facility for mandatory psychiatric watch. There, Kenna meets other kids like her—her roommate, Donya, who’s there for her fifth time; the birdlike Skylar; and Jag, a boy cute enough to make her forget her problems . . . for a moment.

I have read only two other books written in verse, but I have found I do enjoy the ones  have read and look forward to reading more.

Kiss of Broken Glass deals with a hard topic – cutting – and what could drive a person to do it.  I found Kenna to be very realistic and tortured, even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself.  Through Kenna we learn about the drive and ache of her addiction to self harm and the author does a great job of making us feel that need right along with Kenna.  The book spans only 72 hours, but in that short period, things become very eye opening.  The book was an incredibly fast read, but it was also powerful.

The few characters we meet during the commitment weren’t around very long, but they each had their own special impact on Kenna.  I especially liked Skylar and her honesty.  She was very open about everything and I think that helped Kenna be more honest with herself.  Donia was ok, but she was also someone who wanted to help Kenna keep cutting and didn’t seem like someone much into quitting self harm.  I didn’t get to know Jag too well, but the little bit I did see of him I did like him.

I definitely enjoyed this book and look forward to more work from this author!

Well written, powerful, fast read, really puts you in the main character’s shoes.

My Last Kiss Review and Giveaway Blog Tour

 

My Last Kiss

Bethany Neal

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Release Date: June 10th 2014

Read 5-29-14

Format: E-book

Source: Blog Tour with The Fantastic Flying Book Club

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What if your last kiss was with the wrong boy? 

Cassidy Haines remembers her first kiss vividly. It was on the old covered bridge the summer before her freshman year with her boyfriend of three years, Ethan Keys. But her last kiss–the one she shared with someone at her seventeenth birthday party the night she died–is a blur. Cassidy is trapped in the living world, not only mourning the loss of her human body, but left with the grim suspicion that her untimely death wasn’t a suicide as everyone assumes. She can’t remember anything from the weeks leading up to her birthday and she’s worried that she may have betrayed her boyfriend. 

If Cassidy is to uncover the truth about that fateful night and make amends with the only boy she’ll ever love, she must face her past and all the decisions she made–good and bad–that led to her last kiss.

I like mystery stories and this book sounded like it could be really good.  Cassidy we only see alive for the very first chapter and for the rest of the book she is following others around trying to solve the questions behind her own death and falling into memories as she recovers them.  One part I did enjoy was seeing how people reacted to her death, like her family and closest friends.   Aimee and Ethan were the characters I liked the most.  They were very devoted to Cassidy and great people to her.  Madison I never really liked from the beginning because she was so back and forth.

There were a bunch of time jumps since there are so many flashbacks as Cassidy gains memories and we fall into them with her.  At several points it confused me when we went into the past because there wasn’t a clear transition all the time, but it becomes easier the more you read.  For me, there weren’t any characters that were super amazing, but most of them were likeable.  Others could be hard to keep up with because we didn’t really see them enough to care to really remember their names.

Several points of the book were predictable, aside from one that I can think of.  And though there was a lot of predictability, I still enjoyed following Cassidy’s story as she unraveled what happened to her and what happens between her and Ethan.  Though this book isn’t amazing, it is still an enjoyable read and I recommend it to those who enjoy mysteries and ghost type stories.

Follow the FFBC Played blog tour and don’t miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

Bethany Neal writes young-adult novels with a little dark side and a lot of kissing! She is obsessed with (but not limited to): nail polish, ginormous rings, pigs, pickles, and dessert.

You can find her locked in her Writertorium for insane amounts of time. But, hey, insanity is fun! My Last Kiss is her first novel.

Giveaway is open to US & Canada | Must be 13 or older to enter 

Win (1) signed hardback of My Last Kiss + a Swag Pack ( MLK Button, MLK Notebook, & Cassidy’s watermelon lip gloss)

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Tour co-hosted by Bethany Neal and The Fantastic Flying Book Club

 

*Review* Impostor – Susanne Winnacker

 Imposter

Susanne Winnacker

320 pages

Read 2-23-14

Format: E-book

Source: Netgalley

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 Tessa is a Variant with extraordinary abilities. She could be a hero, but all she wants to do is fall in love …

Tessa is a Variant, able to absorb the DNA of anyone she touches and mimic their appearance. Shunned by her family, she’s spent the last two years with the Forces with Extraordinary Abilities, a secret branch of the FBI. There she trains with other Variants, such as long-term crush Alec, who each have their own extraordinary ability.

When a serial killer rocks a small town in Oregon, Tessa is given a mission: she must impersonate Madison, a local teen, to find the killer before he strikes again. Tessa hates everything about being an impostor – the stress, the danger, the deceit – but loves playing the role of a normal girl. As Madison, she finds friends, romance, and the kind of loving family she’d do anything to keep.

Amid action, suspense, and a ticking clock, this super-human comes to a very human conclusion: even a girl who can look like anyone struggles the most with being herself.

This book sounded very interesting, so when I saw it on Netgalley, I requested it and was lucky enough to get approved.  I also found this alternate cover, which I like even more than the original cover.  I liked the other cover a lot, don’t get me wrong, but this one is smoother and better fitting for the story than the original.

Tessa has a really cool power, she can morph into anybody she has touched, and she is given this really dangerous mission.  She has a lot of internal conflict over her mission, which is very understandable since she has to deceive so many people by posing as one of their loved ones.  Tessa was on okay character, but she could have been better.  I felt at some points she was a bit too obsessed with crushing at the wrong times, but did like Alec when he was being sweet to her and could understand why she would crush on him.  I also liked seeing her struggle with being part of a “normal” family.

As for the killer and such, it wasn’t really hard to figure stuff out and it didn’t surprise me at all who it was, but the ending scenes with the killer did get a bit exciting.  There were a couple small things that were left unanswered, so I hope that there will be some explanation in the next book.  Also, there was a character in this story that I hope had a bigger part in the next story since he was a bit pointless in this one.  The writing was pretty good, but there were some things that became a bit repetitive, not a lot though.

All in all I enjoyed the story and will be looking forward to the next book.

Interesting, good writing, good story, though no surprises in the end.

 

*Review* We Were Liars – E. Lockhart

 We Were Liars

E. Lockhart

Read 1-24-14

Source: Netgalley

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 A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
 
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. 

Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

I went into this book half blind and decided to request it from Netgalley since I had seen a few high star reviews, so I decided to give it a shot and I am certainly glad I did.  There was a lot I really enjoyed about this story and it has stayed with me since I finished it and I think it will stay with me for a while after.

The main character, Cadence, is part of a group of friends that call themselves the Liars.  I am not sure if I just didn’t pick up on something, but I’m still not sure why they call themselves the Liars, especially since the adults lied more than the group did.  But, anyway, Cadence we get to see before and after her accident and how it affects her.  Her friends are each very different from one another and have different personalities, so they stand out well from each other.

“Gat seemed spring-loaded.  Like he was searching for something.  He was contemplation and enthusiasm   Ambition and strong coffee.  I could have looked at him forever.”

Though there wasn’t a lot of action going on, I enjoyed the writing style, which felt lyrical and poetic.  It isn’t fast-paced, but it still keeps a hold on you and makes you want to read more.  For me, it is beautiful and honest writing.  One of my favorite things about this story was the ending.  Generally, it takes a lot to surprise me, and this story did it and it will tug at your heart strings in the process.  Also, there are some time jumps back and forth a few times, so if you are someone who gets confused by time jumps, just be warned because sometimes flashbacks just jump right in.

Definitely a book I recommend, especially if you are a contemporary fan or enjoy surprise endings.  Beautiful and tragic, one you won’t quickly forget.

Beautiful writing, surprise ending, enthralling, powerful.

*Review* Psycho Inside Me – Bonnie R. Paulson

 Psycho Inside Me

Bonnie R. Paulson

Read 1-17-14

Format: E-book

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 I killed my first victim at thirteen years old – my age, not his. He was going to rape me, him and a couple of his friends. And so, I killed him. And then… I killed again. And again. 
At seventeen, I’m killing four to six times a year – maybe more. Don’t stress out. I only go after the pedophiles and rapists. There are more out there than I could cover in a lifetime. 
Saying I did this on my own would be selfish. Enforcing justice holds a glory all its own. But now, my lifelong friend and backup, Deegan, has been arrested. I have to decide if I want to give myself up and take his place or leave him with all the damning evidence. I don’t want to stop killing. But if I let him take the fall, I can’t kill anymore. And I need to keep doing that. 
But the worst part of it all? I love him.

Well….what can I say here.  The synopsis sounds so interesting and promising, I mean – first victim at 13?  Definitely an attention grabber, but…sad to say that I was not a fan of this book.  For a few different reasons.  I really, really, REALLY wanted to like this book, I truly did, but it just didn’t happen for me.  And guys…I’m not trying to be mean, I’m really not, but I don’t understand how this story has gotten so many 4 and 5 star ratings because there is just SO MUCH missing here.  It may be because of my background working with law enforcement, but….there were a bunch of gaps, and wait…but what about this? and how did this not happen??  Etc.

So, I will start with Cassie.  I understand why she feels the need to do this (I see nasty people like her victims on a regular basis, so yeah, I get why she would want to), and she was a mostly strong female main character.  I say mostly because who wouldn’t panic when they are about to murder someone?  Deegan is  sweet person to Cassie when they do their thing and go hunting, but I don’t like how he treats her the other times.

The writing style wasn’t bad, but it could use some improvement.  Like in the description department.  I love descriptions, but they just weren’t there for me.  I didn’t “see” what was going on the way I should have, especially for a story that could be incredibly gory with the murders.  There were also lots of jumps and stuff skipped and a huge one that had me yelling at my Nook.  For those who want to know below I am going to make a list of venting spoilers as to why I was not a fan of this story.

SPOILERS!!!!!

Ok, so here is my rant on why this book just wasn’t for me.

First, I never saw anything about any investigations.  NONE.  Not even when she killed the pervy cop.  Never even questioned.  No mention of any kind of DNA or hair evidence in vehicles, even when the pervy cop bit her nipple and had blood in his mouth.  There is no way that any police force wouldn’t scour the car and not find some kind of evidence of her there.

Next, there are big scenes missing I would have liked to have read.  Like her mom dying.  She was there, next day she was in an accident and gone.  That’s it.  Another missing scene that bothered me – you see how it says Deegan was arrested?  Yeah, you never see that either.  End of chapter they are sleeping together first time, beginning of next chapter is like 6 months later and she is visiting him in jail.  O.O  What??

And my final major complaint about this story…she killed 8 people while she was between 13 and 17, which yeah, is a minor, but they only gave her 4 years.  She calmly confessed to every single one of them, making it seem as if Deegan was not around and she did it herself and she got 4 years.  FOR KILLING 8 PEOPLE!  There was just so much that didn’t sit well or feel very realistic for me.

END SPOILER!!!!

So yeah, that’s my rant.  I’m not trying to be mean or nasty in any way, but this book just really bothered me with it’s holes.  I wanted to DNF, but I am still having a problem bringing myself to actually doing that.

Had a lot of potential, not enough description, missing a lot, wasn’t realistic for me.

*Review* The 5th Wave – Rick Yancey

 The 5th Wave

Rick Yancey

457 pages

Read 1-11-14

Format: Audiobook

Source: Library

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After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

I had read plenty of reviews talking about how great this book is and how it isn’t what you expect from an alien book, so I decided to find out for myself how great it actually was and I am happy to report that these claims of greatness are true.  I wasn’t completely sure of what to expect with this story since I’ve never read a book that involved aliens before aside from The Host, but I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would.

The world depicted in this book is a scary place.  Imagine waves of awful things occurring, not knowing who to trust, and fighting everyday to survive, not knowing what is truth or lie.  It’s ugly, no matter who you are.  I also like the cover and how it goes with the story (can you see the giant bird?).  The characters are also really great.  Cassie is a very strong and determined female MC, and even after all of the crap she goes through, she is still willing to do whatever it takes without being whiny.  I like Evan a lot, he is unusual, but I really like him, even though he has some flaws.  And with Zombie, I enjoyed seeing the military aspect of it and what they have to go through on that end.

I read this mostly in audio format, up until the last 30 minutes when my audiobook files became corrupted and stopped working, then I finished it out in a borrowed hardcover.  Both narrators did really well reading it and had nice voices.  The action scenes were great, both in print and on audio and not at all confusing like some can be.  The book also switches points of view from  female and male characters, and I think the author did a really good job of rotating between two different genders’ mindsets.

Though there is some love interest stuff in the story, there is no real gushy mushy romance.  I didn’t expect there to be either, considering aliens are trying to wipe out the human population.  It also isn’t easy at all, which makes it more real than if they had had some sort of crazy romantic love story in the middle of an extraterrestrial takeover.  This one is definitely a book for guys or girls, and even for those who might not care for alien books much because it really isn’t the kind of aliens you think.

Scary world, great characters, good readers, not what you expect.

Cinder Review with Guest Reviewer – My Mom!

 Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1)

Marissa Meyer

 Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

So today is a special guest review from my mom!  I am trying to win an advanced copy of Cress and for it I had it to loan somebody and have them do a review.  I loaned it to my mom since we like a lot of the same type of books.  Plus, she doesn’t read as much YA as I do, and I honestly think she really needs to remedy that 🙂  Cinder is definitely an awesome one to make her read since it is one of my absolute favorites and one of the first I recommend to anybody.

I read the back of the book, and when it said cyborgs, I was like cyborgs?  Really? I thought it was going to take me forever to read it since it was science fiction, but once  started, I didn’t want to put it down!

My daughter told me I needed to read this book that it was so good. I read the overview and thought – great a science fiction I will never finish it. Believe me when I tell you when Marissa Meyer combined a modern day Cinderella and a toned down Star Trek influence she produced a Marvelous work of fantasy fiction. I could hardly put it down, it was wonderful! Ms. Meyer was able to write and create this story as if it was completed in one day. The story flows from beginning to end.

The character Cinder has a chip on her shoulder but not for the obvious reason. You fall in love with her in the beginning and at times you wish you could just thump her on the head for making some of the decisions that she makes. She can be a bit sarcastic and at times it can go over your head and make you do a double take. She is used to getting the blame for many things she has no control over and so she blames herself for her sister’s illness, so she risks her life to try to save her.

Prince Kaito is portrayed as most princes are. Great looking and all the girls are in love with him. He seems very humble, yet wants to claim to be a bit spoiled. He is concerned about the evil Lunar Queen Levana, who tries to make the common people see her as a good and caring queen. The Queen is trying to get him to agree to marry her and he is totally against it. He has the weight of his kingdom on his shoulders so he worries the outcome of his decisions that concern the queen and her possibility of retaliation against his people, and I as hoping she would fall off the balcony, she is so evil.

The personal androids add a bit of a different kind of personality, emotion and logic to the science fiction part of the story. You have a companion that has emotions and opinions such as a friend would have. The medical androids have all the logic and very little personality. The role for them is matter of fact and emotion has no part for them and it works.  Except for Iko, who had a lot of personality and was very funny.  She was certainly different than the rest of the androids!

As for the sisters, Pearl is awful to Cinder, but Peony is nice and not like the typical evil step sisters.  And I couldn’t stand Adri, she is such a horrible, wicked stepmother,  I really enjoyed this book and it was not what I expected, but so much better than what I thought it was going to be.  Great book, even for people who aren’t big on science fiction!

I hope everybody enjoyed the guest review from my mom and have a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

*Review* Before I Fall – Lauren Oliver

 Before I Fall

Lauren Oliver

470 pages

ISBN: 9780061726811

Read 10-16-13

Source: Library

Format: Audiobook

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 What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.

The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

Well, I had heard so much about this book and seen some of the great quotes on Goodreads and people’s blog, so I was excited to read this one.   Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my expectations.  I think I am one of the rare few that didn’t really care for this book.  The writing was really good, but I wasn’t crazy about the characters or the things that happened.  I think the story had a lot of potential to be really great, but it just fell kind of flat for me.

Sam and her group of friends were really quite shallow and mean.  I don’t like those kind of people and I don’t like those kind of characters.  I didn’t realize they were going to be like that.  Several times I wanted to stop, but as stated before, I am not a DNF kind of person, so I trudged through.  Though Sam did change a lot through the book, I was still very annoyed with everybody else.  I also wasn’t big on the way the narrator of the audiobook did the voices, everybody sounded high or slow or tired.  Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it in regular book format instead of audio.

The plot was an interesting idea, but it just could have been better, in my opinion.  I wanted to hit Sam so many times because of how shallow and self centered she was being.  The story made good points in some places, but I just think it could have been so much more.  Sam was definitely a slow learner and it took her quite some time before she was really starting to GET it.  I am not trying to dissuade anybody from reading it, but this just wasn’t for me.

Great writing, unlikeable characters, had potential, not for me.

 

*Review* Teardrop – Lauren Kate

 Teardrop

Lauren Kate

441 pages

ISBN: 9780375990694

Read 10-20-13

Source: Literary Lushes ARC Tours

Format: Paperback ARC

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Never, ever cry. . . . Eureka Boudreaux’s mother drilled that rule into her daughter years ago. But now her mother is gone, and everywhere Eureka goes he is there: Ander, the tall, pale blond boy who seems to know things he shouldn’t, who tells Eureka she is in grave danger, who comes closer to making her cry than anyone has before.

But Ander doesn’t know Eureka’s darkest secret: ever since her mother drowned in a freak accident, Eureka wishes she were dead, too. She has little left that she cares about, just her oldest friend, Brooks, and a strange inheritance—a locket, a letter, a mysterious stone, and an ancient book no one understands. The book contains a haunting tale about a girl who got her heart broken and cried an entire continent into the sea. Eureka is about to discover that the ancient tale is more than a story, that Ander might be telling the truth . . . and that her life has far darker undercurrents than she ever imagined. From Lauren Kate comes an epic saga of heart-stopping romance, devastating secrets, and dark magic . . . a world where everything you love can be washed away.

So, even though the Fallen series fell kind of flat for me for the most part, there was just no way I could pass up reading a book with such a gorgeous cover!  Sometimes, it is good to judge a book by the cover because I am certainly glad that I gave this book a shot.  I loved it so much and it was so much better, in my opinion, than Fallen was.  I really can’t express how much more I liked it over Fallen.  The story was better, the characters were better, the relationships were better.

First, we have Eureka, who is a bit moody yes, but who wouldn’t be after their mother died?  She does typical things of those in mourning and depressed, but she doesn’t cry.  It takes a very strong will to not cry over some of the things this poor girl is put through.  She is quite strong and very determined.  There weren’t any parts that stuck out to me where I wanted to smack her like some of the characters I’ve come across, though I did hate her stepmother, Rhoda, but of course we were supposed to hate her.  Ander is interesting, I’m not in love with him yet, but I do like him.  I had a stronger connection with Brooks, really.  I wasn’t very crazy about Cat, she is a bit of a slut and bounces from guy to guy like it’s nothing, but she is a really good friend to Eureka.

The story was really great and had a lot of strong points and a lot of secrets.  I kept wanting to read and find out more and what does this do and what is going to happen here and what is that about??  I just wanted to know more, more, more, so reading it in two days was definitely not a problem.  I never found myself rolling my eyes at anything like I did several times through out the Fallen series.  I think she greatly improved with Teardrop and I hope the rest of the series is awesome, too.  Also, the descriptions were great and I loved so many of them!

Can we go back to that cover again?  I mean really, JUST LOOK AT IT.  I could get lost in it.  So. Freaking. Beautiful.  It was also my Cover Crush a couple weeks ago and one of my favorites for the year.  There’s a good bit of meaning in the cover as well.  I really hope people who dislike Fallen like I did (at least the first two books, the second two were okay) still give her new series a chance.  And for those who loved Fallen, definitely check this one out!  Thanks again to wonderful ladies over at Literary Lushes for letting me part of this ARC Tour!

Great strong main character, lovely descriptions, kept me reading and wanting to know more, secondary characters okay.

 

*Review* Just One Day – Gayle Forman

 Just One Day

Gayle Forman

368 pages

ISBN: 9780525425915

Read 10-11-13

Source: Library

Format: Hardover

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A breathtaking journey toward self-discovery and true love, from the author of If I Stay

When sheltered American good girl Allyson “LuLu” Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.

Oh, how wonderful this book was!  I did enjoy If I Stay, but I gotta say I enjoyed this one even more!  There is so much I loved about this book and almost nothing that I didn’t.  I’ll start with the scenery.  There are a few places we visit in this story, like England, Holland, and mainly Paris!  Everything is so beautiful and real and alive in my head.  The descriptions are just lovely.

I mostly liked Allyson.  I liked that she got to be someone different, Lulu, for that single day, and it seemed to be truer to herself than she thought, but I didn’t like how she was at first while she was dealing with her tough times.  I kind of wanted to yell at her to get over it a couple of times, but at the same time I can understand why she would be that way.  Oh, Willem, I would love to meet you in real life.  He has now been added to my book boyfriend list for sure.  And Dee, he is so cool, too, quite a character, and in a very, very good way.  I love Allyson and Dee’s friendship and the way he is there for her.   Even the characters you meet in passing are great.

This story was very touching and beautiful and really gets in you heart.  I am glad I don’t have to wait an entire year before reading the second part to this story!  I think I would die because of the way it ended, but luckily, I already have the next one in hand, yay!  I am itching to continue it!  Aside from a great story, it also has great life lessons and I love to see how Allyson starts to see them, too and changing.  If you like contemporaries, or if you have been looking for one to try, this is definitely a wonderful one to pick up!

Great characters, beautiful descriptions, realistic, sometimes Allyson was…annoying.