Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

2.5 Stars. There's no doubt that Claudia Gray knows how to write well. She strings sentences and paragraphs together quite coherently (unlike many others I've tried to read) and her best-selling status reflects that a lot of readers appreciate her writing skills. I don't disagree with that at all. Now, because Gray is a good writer (no spelling errors, can write dialog, etc), other readers may very well enjoy this book so I'm going to lay out exactly why I didn't like it so everyone else can decide if that applies to them as well. If it does, skip the book. If not, you will probably really like it. So read on to see what bugged the heck out of me: The problems I had with her most recent release, A Thousand Pieces of You, had nothing to do with her technical writing skills. Rather, it was the plot and development of the story itself that fell into, well, a thousand pieces. A quick synopsis: Marguerite's parents are famous scientists who not only discover that multiple dimensions co-exist all around us, but invent a small device that allows a person to travel among these dimensions and inhabit our "other dimension" self, one at a time. Needless to say, it's a world-altering discovery/invention but Marguerite's father is murdered immediately following the discovery. One of his two trusted lab assistants, Paul, is accused of the murder (we don't know by what evidence), and Paul skips town. Or rather, he skips their dimension entirely using the newly invented device called the Firebird, hence the series title. Marguerite and the other lab assistant, smarmy Theo, take two more Firebirds and chase after Paul to extract revenge. So you might think this book is a thriller. It is *not a thriller.* There is very little action in this book. It is more a romance because Marguerite is in love with Paul. It's not a spoiler to tell you that she catches up with Paul very early in the book and based on the look on Paul's face, she determines Paul did not kill her dad. I was cool with this. Unfortunately, Marguerite expressed zero interest in even asking who did then kill her dad. None at all. From there on out it was just all about her crush/love for Paul. So this is really a love triangle book since the other lab assistant Theo is crushing on Marguerite big time and trying to convince her Paul really *is* a killer. Who to believe, who to believe? Most of the book from there on out is all about whether you are Team Paul or Team Theo? Marguerite can't really seem to be definitive about it....when she's with Paul she's all about him, when she's with Theo she gets all weak in the knees for him. So if you like that kind of story....well, this may be right up your alley. There were other inconsistencies that bugged me, as well. For example, when Marguerite would arrive in a new dimension and occupy her other dimension "self" she would retain this other "self"s" abilities (like language and motor abilities), which I was completely good with - it made sense, right? But then it was as if the author would forget it all of a sudden....like when she was in her Russian Tsarina self. She knew how to speak Russian and all that, but all of a sudden didn't know how to waltz? The author did that so that she would have to take "private" dancing lessons from her guard who was really Paul. Convenient, yes. Inconsistent though. Grrrrrr. It bugs me when authors break their own rules to make something happen....don't be lazy, find another way to write around it!! Anyway. It's a romance. Like Twilight books were. But the Twilight books (forgive me for saying so) brought forth a visceral emotional reaction on the part of the reader and that's why they sold millions and millions of copies. This book doesn't evoke that same emotion. Mostly I was irritated with Marguerite for being a do-nothing whiner who just wanted in Paul's pants. And sometime's Theo's. I wanted her to be MORE than that. Then she could get in their pants, lol. Your mileage may vary, of course. And this is supposed to be a trilogy so the books may get better. Someone will have to let me know because I won't stick around to find out. Good luck and happy reading!