March the Second 2014.

How Do You Tell If A Lemon Is Ripe?

Okay, first order of business to be discussed is about a novel I included in my February Favorites post.  It was the novel Alienated by Melissa Landers, I have been waiting for quite a few months to read this novel, it was easily one of my most anticipated novels for 2014.  Unfortunately just a few pages in I recognized that the style of writing didn't draw me in the way I had hoped it would.  It wasn't written poorly, far from it.  I just wasn't able to relate to the characters Landers presented to me.  And personally, that's one of the main things that sells a novel to me.  Because of this I decided instead of reading the entire thing thoroughly I would simply skim read it; if I liked the ending enough I would go back and read the in-between's that I missed the first time round.  I won't lie, the novel was what I expected given that I had already read other peoples review's in preparation for reading this one.  It didn't exceed my expectations and it didn't thrill me either, that's not to say it was bad.  It was well crafted and written, and the plot line is perfectly adequate.  It just wasn't to my liking, I think I prefer a little more action and blood-lust? I send the following text to Leprechaun immediately after finished my skim-read this morning.

"Hey, so I just read Alienated.  It was relatively what I expected.  But after waiting for so long for it, I can't help but feel a little disappointed.  I didn't like the ending or the direction of the next novel.  But I'm hoping it will improve."

There were some cute parts, and I loved the human/alien interaction.  But as I said before, I think I'm a girl who prefers blood-lust to politics.  As seen above, I do intend to read the next novel, if only to see if the plot improves.  

It wasn't a novel I loved, but it was a nice light read and I still would recommend it to others if they like Alien Romance novels.  Not to mention the cover is amazing and so it's the sequels! The male protagonist, our resident Alien, was very Spock like in his observations of human interaction and behavior, but slowly he thaws so that's sweet, just an observation of mine.  

See, such a pretty cover!  It's what sold me originally.

Next order of business, I don't actually have one to be honest.  Although I did have an observation this morning while picking lemons off our tree for Father Dear's tea; how can you tell when a lemon is ripe?  Usually we tell if fruits are ripe by their flavor, if they taste sour they usually aren't ripe.  But for a fruit that's sour when ripe, how do you tell?  I know some of you will be thinking the answer is what colour it is, but that isn't right because even when they're yellow they're not always ripe..  I asked Mother Dearest what her thoughts were and she simply said that it doesn't matter if they are ripe of not, my Fathers taste buds disappeared years ago after being forced to eat horrid food under my grandmothers watch.  But my question still remains.  I'm contemplating looking it up on Google but I fear I will be left unsatisfied, much like when I looked up what the clip/clasp that is on bread bags was called (for those of you that don't know, they're called Bread Clips, how disappointing?).  So I don't think I'll do that, I'll just make a list of my theories and present them to the internet (being you lovely people) and see what you all have to say?  Or I'll get bored of such a menial task and look it up.  Now I must depart, I have a half finished poem that is due tomorrow and more poetry to read and analyse for my Reading Journal, that task also requires 3 more pages of writing.  Furthermore I want to spend the next hour wasting my time on Pinterest because I'm a procrastinator (almost wrote protagonist, although that would actually be correct.  I am the protagonist in my own life, am I not?).  

Live long and prosper, godspeed.

Becca.