Book Review: Tainted Luck by Cynthia Austin #BookReview #TaintedLuck #Halloween #Horror

Title: Tainted Luck
Author: Cynthia Austin
Publisher: Britain’s next bestseller
Date: July 30th, 2018
Pages: 129
Format: eARC
Source: from Author for a review

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Levi Kast was content living his life in the shadows. He didn’t want much, just his dad’s attention and the girl of his dreams to notice his existence.

Instead, he got more than he had bargained for.

Taylor James was the new student at Kennedy High. She was eccentric, impulsive, Gothic and…dark.

She always got what she wanted, and she decided instantly that she wanted Levi Kast. He became her obsession.

Despite Levi’s initial response to retreat from her other world presence, he was eventually drawn to this girl and her obsession of death and ghosts.

But Taylor had skeletons in her closest, including a dead boyfriend, and before Levi could understand them, he found himself her next victim.

Review:

Trigger warning: This book talks about suicide and mental illness.

This book is short, so I’ll try to make my review short as well.

I have to admit that if I haven’t been contacted by the author I would probably never read this book. It’s not that I wouldn’t want to, but because I simply haven’t heard about it before.
This is why reviews are so important.

Tainted luck is a story written from Levi’s POV, about a new girl in the school who is mysterious but also a bit addictive.
It has paranormal elements and talks about witchcraft in bits.
If you ask me, the biggest part of this book centers around mental illness.

The story itself is good. I loved how it was developed, from one atmosphere when everything was mysterious and cutesy to the other when it became dark and dangerous.
I loved that, and the whole story was really good. Yes, it had some problems and holes that could be easily fixed, but my main problem (and I hate to say this) lies in the writing style.

I really feel sorry to say that, especially because I was contacted by the author, but I feel that if the story was told in a different, better way it would be so much better.
It had potential to really become Britian’s next bestseller, but sadly, I don’t think it will.

It wasn’t just the writing, I had some issues with characters too.
Levi was not totally unlikeable, but he was annoying at times. However, I would ascribe it to the writing style. With his unpleasant comments he would throw on almost every time when talking about Taylor or describing certain situations.
One sentence even made me feel uncomfortable, and I am quoting it here for you, so you can get the picture what I’m talking about.

“…I turned to her, my patience as shaky as an anorexic supermodel…”

Taylor was unlikeable and rude. This is the was she talked to her own mother:

“Yeah, whatever Mom. How about doing your fucking job and put some dinner on the table?”

What is even more troublesome, that sentence right there made Levi see Taylor in a different way, he started to respect her because from then on.

As for others, they were just stupid most of the time. Didn’t have the courage to stand for themselves, but let that Taylor girl do whatever she wanted, even though their destiny was in question.
I don’t think that anyone could start a seanse in my presence against my will.

I won’t say anything else, I think you got the idea.

Even though you maybe wouldn’t say from my review, I am glad that I read Tainted luck.

I would recommend it to fans of paranormal and to those who want to read something quick and easy, since it has only 129 pages and it reads pretty fast.

Movie Monday: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

Movie Monday is a weekly feature here on my blog, in which I’m rambling about movies I’ve watched lately.

This week I watched a sequel to a comedy that’s very dear to me.

 

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

neighbors2

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising is the sequel to 2014 comedy Neighbors.
I remember I was excited about the first movie since the day I heard about it, and then waited a year until it finally came out.
When I finally watched it, I was so happy it lived up to all of my expectations.

Last year when I heard that there’s a sequel coming out and that Chloe Moretz and Selena Gomez are starting in it along with an old cast, I was excited, but in whole honesty, I was also scared that it won’t be as good as I wanted for it to be, because, let’s face it, it wouldn’t be the first time that the sequel sucks.

Last week I watched Neighbors 2 along with my friend who hasn’t watched the first movie, and we pretty much had a good time.
The story was easy to follow and, even though there were some things from the movie one mentioned and it would be the best if you’d watch Neighbors prior to this one, my friend had no problem understanding the story and enjoying the film whatsoever.

The movie wasn’t as good as it’s predecessor, but it wasn’t bad either. It had some flaws, some naive scenes and problems that could easily be solved if characters just stopped and thought for a moment, but it was still fun, and that is what is most important when it comes to comedies. It was a good entertainment.

I like how all the cast from the first movie appeared. I adore Dave Franco and love to watch Christopher Mintz-Plasse in movies, so it was nice to see them back, even just for a short time.
Zac Efron was also good and damn, that guy is pretty bulk now, but don’t get me wrong, I like it!

I think Chloe Grace Moretz did an amazing job. The only thing that surprised me was how few scenes with Selena Gomez there were.

Overall, a really good movie to keep you entertained, but it did not live up to it’s predecessor.

 

Note: Picture in this post is not my property but taken from IMDb site and is property of Universal Pictures.

Bout of Books Day 2 Update

bob16 On the second day of Bout of Books read-a-thon my reading pace is similar to the one I had on the day 1. I am pretty much satisfied with the number of pages I read, even though I know that in order to reach my goal of 1000 pages read in the end of the read-a-thon, I’ll have to read more pages per day.

Yesterday, I haven’t participated in the challenge because I think my bookshelves are just plain boring. The only thing that’s there are books, an owl and an Eiffel Tower.

 

My Progress:

Day 2:

the unexpected everything pages read: 70

Total number of pages read: 139

 

If you’re participating, how is it going and are you happy with your progress?