Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Review: Frigid by Jennifer L. Armentrout aka J. Lynn

Title: Frigid
Author: J. Lynn (Jennifer L. Armentrout)
Published: July 15th 2013
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

For twenty-one-year-old Sydney, being in love with Kyler isn't anything new. They'd been best friends ever since he pushed her down on the playground and she made him eat a mud pie. Somewhere over the years, she fell for him and fell hard. The big problem with that? Kyler puts the 'man' in man-whore. He's never stayed with a girl longer than a few nights, and with it being their last year in college, Syd doesn't want to risk their friendship by declaring her love.

Kyler has always put Syd on a pedestal that was too high for him to reach. To him, she's perfect and she's everything. But the feelings he has for her, he's always hidden away or focused on any other female. After all, Kyler will always be the poor boy from the wrong side of tracks, and Syd will always be the one girl he can never have.

But when they're stranded together at a posh ski resort due to a massive Nor'easter, there's nothing stopping their red-hot feelings for each other from coming to the surface. Can their friendship survive the attraction? Better yet, can they survive at all? Because as the snow falls, someone is stalking them, and this ski trip may be a life-changer in more ways than one.

Ohhhkay. Let me get this straight: I KNOW there are people out there who absolutely loved this book and I am sorry for what I am about to say. It's solely my opinion, it doesn't have to match yours. I am glad that you were able to enjoy something by Jennifer since she is a kick-a author. For me, unfortunately, this was the weakest I have read by Jennifer. Let me tell you why.

“How much snow are they calling for?” “Somewhere between a lot and holy fuck.” 

The story. Sydney has been in love with her best friend Kyler forever. Kyler is by any means a man-whore with no dignity. He is cocky and doesn't realize that Sydney wants him more than a friend. They go up to the mountains to spend a weekend skiing with their friends just like every year, however, this year is going to be different. There's a huge snow storm and only these two end up in this frigid house with their past mistakes haunting them and it seems like someone else is out to get them as well.

My thoughts. Maybe if there would have been more Kyler's point of view, I would have understood him more, but no. I just found him to be a jerk who had redeemable qualities, but he didn't redeem his behaviour to me by any means. He was like an imperfect Daemon Black 2.0. He was constantly with other girls, but god forbid that Syd gets a guy. He went bonkers and got out of his way to keep her away from any potential love interest. Look, I like Jen's writing, I do, but all of her books and characters are starting to melt together for me to the point where I don't separate Seth, Daemon and Kyler from each other and the same goes for Katy, Avery and Sydney. There are more examples, but they're all basically the same. Seth may not ever get the girl, but the rest of the ones I brought up: a nerdy, cute, avarage girl getting it on with a cocky, charismatic, hot guy. You see a trend here? Because I do.

I thought the plot sounded interesting and enjoyable, but it turned out to be poorly executed. In my eyes only, of course. I know that Jen's capable of so much more and this was just.. blahhh. I found Sydney to be so annoying. She needed saving every step of the way. She spent time laying on the ground or getting hurt other ways and getting hit or falling more than I could count. She is the definition of a clutz. Also, she just kept pining and whining and going on and on and on about Kyler. I grew tired of that by the 5th chapter if not sooner. Kyler was just all-out annoying for me. 'nuff said. And let's not even start about the whole 'someone is out to get us murdered' storyline. What. In. The. World. I guessed who was behind it as soon as they started talking about it. I mean, come on! Really? Really? *rolls eyes* Oh, and the first half of the books was spent on building up anticipation and when it finally happened, it was sex for at least 4 chapters straight. That was too much, I'm telling you. I just skipped that part after reading the first sex chapter. Wayyyy too much!

The best part of the novel was the tree climbing scene. I wish that their best friends would have been more in the picture. Right now I can't remember their names. Was the guy Trevor? I may be wrong. Anyhow, if you've read this one, you know who I'm talking about. I thoroughly enjoyed their relationship and I wish there would have been more scenes including them, them starting a relationship storyline etc. I also enjoyed that the MCs weren't damaged. That's refreshing.

I hope I didn't offend anyone with this rant, but I just couldn't hold it in me. I didn't enjoy this one. It isn't the worst book I've read, but it was the worst by Jen that I've read. She didn't wow me this time even though I was ready to be blown away. I can totally see what people like in this book, but I'm getting tiresome of the same guys and girls playing the main role and in my eyes, the story wasn't that well executed. I'm not giving up on Jen with this book. She's still a rockstar author and I'm looking forward to reading something else by her.

A question to the big circle: don't you think this would have worked better as a Christmas/winter read as opposed to being published in mid July *__*

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

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12 comments:

  1. I feel like I'm in the minority with this one though. Her writing is strong, but it doesn't stand out anymore. She has this.. signature that even if you didn't know for sure it was HER writing, you'd still feel and recognize it. Yeah, the 4 chapters of sex in different rooms and positions and expressing love were a bit too much for me to take. I just couldn't take it and read those parts diagonally. I enjoyed a few parts in this one, but mostly it was 'meh' for me. I hope I'll have better luck with her next book:)

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  2. Everyone seem to be disappointed by this one. Honestly I'm so sad as JLA wrote some amazing books. I guess we all are sick and tired of cliche and same old stories in NA genre. Great review!

    Tanja @ Ja čitam, a ti?

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    1. I do think her plots are awesome, it's just the characters that are beginning to blur into one for me. I agree, the same old same old gets tiring pretty darn quicklly. Thanks, Tanja!

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  3. You nailed it with your review, Siiri!
    I'm honestly not going to waste my time writing a negative review, but you did it brilliantly.
    We've discussed this book so many times, I'm not sure what new to add! Haha! :D

    "Look, I like Jen's writing, I do, but all of her books and characters are starting to melt together for me to the point where I don't separate Seth, Daemon and Kyler from each other and the same goes for Katy, Avery and Sydney. There are more examples, but they're all basically the same. Seth may not ever get the girl, but the rest of the ones I brought up: a nerdy, cute, avarage girl getting it on with a cocky, charismatic, hot guy. You see a trend here? Because I do."

    THIS! I completely agree with you. All her characters are so similar which is why I get so bored with her series after some time. (except for the Covenant series which got better as the series progressed, disregarding book 1 of course - *huge VA fan here*) Oh and I also read Obsession and the chick and the guy in that are older copies of Katy and Daemon!
    At first the character seemed great, but then it gets frustrating after some time. But good for the author her formulaic characters seem to work well with her fan-girls who love everything she writes. I think that's probably why she continues to give them similar characteristics. I hope her new series has some fresh characters!

    Anyways, enough of me writing my lame thoughts!
    Great review, girl! :)

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    1. Ah, I know! It's not that I don't like this kind of characters, I sure do, but after a whiile it gets boring, especially if it's by the same author. I wish she'd take on something different. Keeping my fingers crossed that her next series will hold a different type of characters (which I doubt it will). Btw, I'm a major VA fan as well and I like Covenant, but the first two books were just too darn similar to VA, although, the second book started to give the series some original colours and Deity was pretty different. I like how permanent these acient Greek gods are in that series. Ha, you're not doing any kind of lame rambling lol.

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  4. Uh-oh. I've read so many glowing reviews for this that I purchased it while it's on sale. I've been so excited to read it but now, I'm scared! I generally love best friends turning more set-ups so I was excited. And yes, I've been wondering for the longest time why this was released during summer and not during winter. What gives? Great, honest review, Siiri!

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  5. Well shoot Siiri! I was hoping for great things from this book since I enjoy Jennifer's writing so much. I can believe you completely about Kyler though, I actually was one of the few people who did NOT fall in love with Daemon Black. I thought he was an a-hole throughout the entire first book until I got to the end. Then I began to understand the appeal. Why you ask? Because there were a couple scenes from his POV in the back so I was able to see into his character a bit more and his behavior started to make sense. Clearly we need something similar with Kyler! I'm not going to rush to read this one, I think I'll try out Wait for You first!

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  6. "She needed saving every step of the way. She spent time laying on the ground or getting hurt other ways and getting hit or falling more than I could count. She is the definition of a clutz."
    Yikes! And obsessing about the guy doesn't do her much good either. You're definitely right about the clutzy, nerdy girl getting the guy. And the girl needing saving. That was partially my issue with Wait for You.

    " And let's not even start about the whole 'someone is out to get us murdered' storyline. What. In. The. World. I guessed who was behind it as soon as they started talking about it. I mean, come on! Really? Really? *rolls eyes* Oh, and the first half of the books was spent on building up anticipation and when it finally happened, it was sex for at least 4 chapters straight."
    Um yeah. The really good part of romance novels is the tension. Sex for 4 chapters straight sounds kind of boring, since you've not picked up book just for that - there is an erotica section, after all. The plot twists in most romance novels never seem to be really unpredictable to me either.

    "A question to the big circle: don't you think this would have worked better as a Christmas/winter read as opposed to being published in mid July *__*"
    But, Siiri, the Nor'easter is steamy, so it'll melt away into a beautiful, hotttttt summer. See? See? Yeah.

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  7. Lol, Siiri, I thought the same thing about marketing this one in Winter instead of releasing it in the Summer. I was scratching my head on that one. Romances about unrequited love are a favorite of mine so I was really looking forward to this one. I bought it! I'm sure Kyler (weird name, btw) would annoy the heck out of me if he's nothing but a man-whore throughout. I can only take so much "jerk" in my story before I end up hating him. I won't be rushing to read this anytime soon. Oh well. Great honest review, even the ranty parts! :)

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  8. Aww, so sorry that you didn't enjoy this one Siiri. I loved it, but I totally get where you are coming from

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  9. Okay, YES, Armentrout's characters are starting to sound so similar. And whenever I was in Sydney's head I thought Kyler was a major asshole. But then I'd get his POV and feel better about him. I think I enjoyed this one a bit more than you did, but I agree that it wasn't Armentrout's best work. The mystery plot was only a cover to get these two in a deserted house together. HAHA. I laughed at your description of their endless sex-athon - so true! I also wanted Kyler to do something a little BIGGER near the end when Sydney's left him. I seem to remember that she did most of the work their too. Great review!

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  10. wow! is wonderful. it's the inventor or very good and keep trying possibility. pog
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