What do you think?
Rate this book
To Be Continued
Not all stories end happily nor tragically. Most of them just need to be continued.Azalea Anthony is a writer, or what she claims to be.Vim Harvey is her friend, or at least what she wants to believe.Jasmine Morrish is Azalea's archenemy, or so what Jash believes Azalea makes people believe...er--There are other characters, too: like Warren, the basketball player, Beatrix, the model, Tom, the perfect excuse of a brother, Eclaire, the eccentric bff, etc.They all hangout in one place where they can enjoy a steaming cup of debates, an aroma of gossips, a side dish of basketball, a topping of drama, and a menu of articles : The Big Coffee Shop.
- GenresYoung AdultContemporary
298 pages, Paperback
First published June 25, 2015
2 people are currently reading
563 people want to read
About the author
Prex J.D.V. Ybasco
1 book30 followersThe President of The Ybasco University
An accomplished Educator.
A Seminar Speaker.
A Bookworm.
A Musician.
A Writer.
Her first work is "To Be Continued," a Young Adult novel that features Azalea Anthony, a struggling writer, her influences, her love for writing and basketball, and her relationships with people around her.
An accomplished Educator.
A Seminar Speaker.
A Bookworm.
A Musician.
A Writer.
Her first work is "To Be Continued," a Young Adult novel that features Azalea Anthony, a struggling writer, her influences, her love for writing and basketball, and her relationships with people around her.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
September 6, 2015
A digital copy of this book was given to me by the author through We <3 YA Books group in exchange for an honest review.
This book is about Azalea working through her experience as a writer alongside dealing with a complicated web of friendship. To be honest it has a very promising blurb. The tagline “Not all stories end happily or tragically. Most of them just need to be continued”. I was intrigued to know how the novel will turn out. Clearly I expected too much but the book did not work me. All the characters were annoying, they felt so silly and they remind me of middle school. In my opinion there are still a lot of editing to do. Another thing is the narrative, it’s such a thin book yet I find it hard trying to finish it. All the details are overly described; a reader would like to work on their imagination don’t we? And all those description made the book dragging. Maybe it will go well if the narrative is in the first person point of view. I don’t totally hate this book, Ybasco’s writing has potential, she can be poetic at times but it’s a little off, I don’t see color whenever I put them all together, nevertheless I think this book can still mostly be appreciated by early teen readers.
This book is about Azalea working through her experience as a writer alongside dealing with a complicated web of friendship. To be honest it has a very promising blurb. The tagline “Not all stories end happily or tragically. Most of them just need to be continued”. I was intrigued to know how the novel will turn out. Clearly I expected too much but the book did not work me. All the characters were annoying, they felt so silly and they remind me of middle school. In my opinion there are still a lot of editing to do. Another thing is the narrative, it’s such a thin book yet I find it hard trying to finish it. All the details are overly described; a reader would like to work on their imagination don’t we? And all those description made the book dragging. Maybe it will go well if the narrative is in the first person point of view. I don’t totally hate this book, Ybasco’s writing has potential, she can be poetic at times but it’s a little off, I don’t see color whenever I put them all together, nevertheless I think this book can still mostly be appreciated by early teen readers.
September 1, 2015
3.5 stars
To Be Continued is a debut novel by Prex JDV Ybasco about young love, sweet love. Azalea was an aspiring writer who found herself rejected by editors of The Herald even after winning an Essay Writing Contest. What irked her more was the fact that her close friend Vim was the one who didn't approve of her writing. She's also friends with Beatrix and Eclaire, a formidable duo who's got secrets of their own. Most of the time, we'd see Azalea in The Big Coffee shop, the rendezvous for all things young and hip in Centerville, King's Point. She usually poured out her emotions there with a cup of The Big Coffee and Bluer Than Blue cupcakes.
While I thought Azalea was a daunting student who needed to prove to everyone that she's got what it takes to be part of The Herald, her relationship with brothers Vim amd Kaizer were totally out of bounds. A lot of times I felt the tension between her and Vim, my hopes only to be dashed by the appearance of their respective significant others. (Vim was very much taken by Jasmine and Azalea was the ex-girlfriend of Vim's bro, Kaizer).
"It took you two years to get over Kaiser but I hope it won't take long for Vim."
Azalea smiles sadly. "Kaiser broke my heart, Vim crushed my dreams. I don't know which of them is worse."
High school, they say, is the happiest moment of a student's life. Can't say it's true in my case, because mine was a smorgasbord of people, events, feelings. I wasn't keen on crushes or relationships at that time. I was a late bloomer, to tell you the truth. This book very much reflects the drama and angst most teenagers feel in high school today. The need to be accepted in a society of achievers, the need to be recognized for who you are and what you really want, the longing for a serious relationship, the easy access to friends' daily life through social media, the acceptance of one's true identity and preference.
Azalea and her love for coffee became a staple in The Big Coffee shop. There she witnessed different kinds of relationship between her friends and family. I liked that she was forthcoming with her two best buddies, Eclaire & Beatrix. I liked that she wasn't surprised and judgmental with Warren and Ms. St Anoire. I liked that she knew how to keep her distance, suppress her feelings, maintain her composure and be real around the boy who drove a motorcycle in the yellow brick road.
I kinda liked this story because it reminded me of young blooming love. I liked the author's take on relationships. I recommend this to hopeless romantics of today's generation. I think this story deserves to be continued..
To Be Continued is a debut novel by Prex JDV Ybasco about young love, sweet love. Azalea was an aspiring writer who found herself rejected by editors of The Herald even after winning an Essay Writing Contest. What irked her more was the fact that her close friend Vim was the one who didn't approve of her writing. She's also friends with Beatrix and Eclaire, a formidable duo who's got secrets of their own. Most of the time, we'd see Azalea in The Big Coffee shop, the rendezvous for all things young and hip in Centerville, King's Point. She usually poured out her emotions there with a cup of The Big Coffee and Bluer Than Blue cupcakes.
While I thought Azalea was a daunting student who needed to prove to everyone that she's got what it takes to be part of The Herald, her relationship with brothers Vim amd Kaizer were totally out of bounds. A lot of times I felt the tension between her and Vim, my hopes only to be dashed by the appearance of their respective significant others. (Vim was very much taken by Jasmine and Azalea was the ex-girlfriend of Vim's bro, Kaizer).
"It took you two years to get over Kaiser but I hope it won't take long for Vim."
Azalea smiles sadly. "Kaiser broke my heart, Vim crushed my dreams. I don't know which of them is worse."
High school, they say, is the happiest moment of a student's life. Can't say it's true in my case, because mine was a smorgasbord of people, events, feelings. I wasn't keen on crushes or relationships at that time. I was a late bloomer, to tell you the truth. This book very much reflects the drama and angst most teenagers feel in high school today. The need to be accepted in a society of achievers, the need to be recognized for who you are and what you really want, the longing for a serious relationship, the easy access to friends' daily life through social media, the acceptance of one's true identity and preference.
Azalea and her love for coffee became a staple in The Big Coffee shop. There she witnessed different kinds of relationship between her friends and family. I liked that she was forthcoming with her two best buddies, Eclaire & Beatrix. I liked that she wasn't surprised and judgmental with Warren and Ms. St Anoire. I liked that she knew how to keep her distance, suppress her feelings, maintain her composure and be real around the boy who drove a motorcycle in the yellow brick road.
I kinda liked this story because it reminded me of young blooming love. I liked the author's take on relationships. I recommend this to hopeless romantics of today's generation. I think this story deserves to be continued..
October 26, 2015
The story is about Azelea, an aspiring writer who lives a post-breakup life and we follow her journey through it with her friends. Honestly, I think the characters were not mature enough although they are supposed to be grown ups. I'm in University and it's not representative of what University/College students should be like . Sometimes, the dialogues are really childish and foolish. I think there are some work to do in the writing style ( the author uses a lot of the same structure, same vocabulary), I wanted to see more personal traits into the characters because everyone in that story annoyed me somehow. The main character seems to spend her time complaining and criticizing other people, while her friends are not that great either. One thinks she's on top of everyone, one who starts fights wheenver she feels like it and many more. Furthermore, the e-book format was also a bit off so it was hard for me to read and fully enjoy it.
A big thank you to the author for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Trang- Book Blogger and Book Reviewer
http://bookidote.wordpress.com
A big thank you to the author for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Trang- Book Blogger and Book Reviewer
http://bookidote.wordpress.com
August 29, 2015
Actual rating: 1.5*
Opinião em português do blog Pepita Mágica: http://pepitamagica.blogspot.pt/2015/...
I received a digital arc from the author through "We *heart* YA Books" group from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.
The author approached me asking if I was willing to sign up to read and review “To Be Continued” through “We *heart* YA Book” group from Goodreads. I said yes not knowing much about the story, but the “not all stories end happily nor tragically. Most of them just need to be continued” concept sounded very interesting and promising.
Well, this book didn't work for me. It’s about Azalea and her friends. Supposedly they are at the University, but they act like a bunch of annoying kids. It's fast paced, but nothing remotely interesting happens in the whole book; it is all a mix of every cliché you can think of, teen “problems” and so on (but I'm not sure if it wasn't actually the author's intent). All characters are annoying (some more than others), shallow and worst: poorly developed. I couldn't connect to any character; they were just indifferent to me. Well, to be honest, I think I didn’t like any of the characters: they seemed fake, pretentious, and, well, annoying. I think the only time this book gets deep and thoughtful is the final essay written by Azalea.
And I never understood the Apollo reference. Why use Apollo as a reference to the sun? I know he’s the Greek God that rode the chariot of the sun - I'm a major Greek mythology nerd (and ancient culture – especially Greek culture – were one of the focus of my academic career), but using it all the time as a reference to the sun? Maybe if Azalea was interested in Greek culture, it would make sense, but the way it was written sound a bit out of place.
I feel the writing was inexperienced, needing a lot of editing, and it used almost always the same sentence structure and the same vocabulary. There's a lot of repetitions, but let me explain this: most of the time they are needed where they show up, but it's always the same words/structure. I think the author should have thought of other expressions to use, creating diversity. There were lots of blocks of narrative that didn’t connect with each other; they were just “pieces” of life randomly stuck together. The story didn't flow naturally; those “breaks” in the narrative felt weird and I think it was a downgrade to the book.
Apparently I'm a black sheep (according to Goodreads reviews) because I'm incapable of giving this book a good rating.
Opinião em português do blog Pepita Mágica: http://pepitamagica.blogspot.pt/2015/...
I received a digital arc from the author through "We *heart* YA Books" group from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.
The author approached me asking if I was willing to sign up to read and review “To Be Continued” through “We *heart* YA Book” group from Goodreads. I said yes not knowing much about the story, but the “not all stories end happily nor tragically. Most of them just need to be continued” concept sounded very interesting and promising.
Well, this book didn't work for me. It’s about Azalea and her friends. Supposedly they are at the University, but they act like a bunch of annoying kids. It's fast paced, but nothing remotely interesting happens in the whole book; it is all a mix of every cliché you can think of, teen “problems” and so on (but I'm not sure if it wasn't actually the author's intent). All characters are annoying (some more than others), shallow and worst: poorly developed. I couldn't connect to any character; they were just indifferent to me. Well, to be honest, I think I didn’t like any of the characters: they seemed fake, pretentious, and, well, annoying. I think the only time this book gets deep and thoughtful is the final essay written by Azalea.
And I never understood the Apollo reference. Why use Apollo as a reference to the sun? I know he’s the Greek God that rode the chariot of the sun - I'm a major Greek mythology nerd (and ancient culture – especially Greek culture – were one of the focus of my academic career), but using it all the time as a reference to the sun? Maybe if Azalea was interested in Greek culture, it would make sense, but the way it was written sound a bit out of place.
I feel the writing was inexperienced, needing a lot of editing, and it used almost always the same sentence structure and the same vocabulary. There's a lot of repetitions, but let me explain this: most of the time they are needed where they show up, but it's always the same words/structure. I think the author should have thought of other expressions to use, creating diversity. There were lots of blocks of narrative that didn’t connect with each other; they were just “pieces” of life randomly stuck together. The story didn't flow naturally; those “breaks” in the narrative felt weird and I think it was a downgrade to the book.
Apparently I'm a black sheep (according to Goodreads reviews) because I'm incapable of giving this book a good rating.
August 10, 2015
On the night of Valentine's Day, a call from Jess informs Reehan about Anita's attempted suicide. Reehan rushes to the hospital where circumstances forces and fate favours him to spend a lonely night. A journey down the memory lane begins when Reehan introspect the reasons behind his transformation from a shy- guy to a ruthless co- conspirator. As a teen his life had all colours of love and friendship. His biggest weakness was his emotions. His heart drove his life and was never in control. With failed relations his broken heart took a wrong turn and headed towards a disaster called Anita.
Coming to the review, the good phase of the book starts once the half of the book is done. The second phase of the book stands out for me. Initially, the way a character is being shown in the hospital after attempting to suicide and the way protagonist enters the story, you get an urge to go into flashback and know the story and relation between both of them which led them to this scenario. Then as the flashback begins, the book turns little uninteresting. The concept of showing girlfriends-after-girlfriends has never excited me when I read a college campus love story. I always prefer some adventure, traveling part and some parts that can add to the twists and turns to the story. Here it wasn't anything of this kind. But later in the second half, the way story flows with a speed is when you really start liking it. The scenario where the protagonist gets into the bad light in his college is the most exciting phase of the book. The changes his life underwent because of it and the reaction of his parents and family, all makes a delight read in the end.
Coming to the review, the good phase of the book starts once the half of the book is done. The second phase of the book stands out for me. Initially, the way a character is being shown in the hospital after attempting to suicide and the way protagonist enters the story, you get an urge to go into flashback and know the story and relation between both of them which led them to this scenario. Then as the flashback begins, the book turns little uninteresting. The concept of showing girlfriends-after-girlfriends has never excited me when I read a college campus love story. I always prefer some adventure, traveling part and some parts that can add to the twists and turns to the story. Here it wasn't anything of this kind. But later in the second half, the way story flows with a speed is when you really start liking it. The scenario where the protagonist gets into the bad light in his college is the most exciting phase of the book. The changes his life underwent because of it and the reaction of his parents and family, all makes a delight read in the end.
February 23, 2021
To Be Continued by Prex J. D. V Ybasco
I’m not normally the type to read Young Adult fiction, as my tastes tend to learn towards the nitty gritty, but after Ybasco offered me a free copy in exchange for a review, I decided to stretch my legs a bit and give it a go. The book’s tag line, “Not all stories end happily nor tragically. Most of them just need to be continued” was that which drew me to the novel. It’s a beautiful concept that Prex presents and her story, a collection of eccentric characters that all sing a voice of their own, illustrates it perfectly. Her prose is poetic, her stories beautiful. Give it a shot. Or don’t, but that’s your loss.
I’m not normally the type to read Young Adult fiction, as my tastes tend to learn towards the nitty gritty, but after Ybasco offered me a free copy in exchange for a review, I decided to stretch my legs a bit and give it a go. The book’s tag line, “Not all stories end happily nor tragically. Most of them just need to be continued” was that which drew me to the novel. It’s a beautiful concept that Prex presents and her story, a collection of eccentric characters that all sing a voice of their own, illustrates it perfectly. Her prose is poetic, her stories beautiful. Give it a shot. Or don’t, but that’s your loss.
August 14, 2015
I received a free copy of this book from the We ♥ YA Books! group in exchange for a honest review.
I have a lot of problems with this book. I think part of the problem was the poor writing, and the other part of the problem is that I am nowhere near the target demographic.
Really, nobody older than middle school should bother reading this book. I truly do think those kids (ages 12-14) might enjoy it, but anyone older than that is going to have trouble with it. It reads very much like a 13 year old girl wrote a novel about how she imagines "older kids" think, feel, and act. It's not realistic at all, and for being a contemporary novel with a very realistic setting, that's not good.
The writing itself was not great - it still needs a good amount of editing, I think. Many grammatical mistakes, and there was no variation in the sentence structure. The language was also VERY fake - no one talks like these characters did (example: "If she has done a lot of things on this Earth, why hasn't she bought this school, or be the President of Centerville?"). Sentence restructuring could have helped this book so much, I almost just wanted to dive in and do it myself.
I also unfortunately hated the main character. Azalea way too sensitive to everything that was said to her. I felt like every other page she was getting mad at someone (even her best friends) for saying something that she interpreted to be mean, even when it wasn't even a bad thing for that person to say. She's not the only one with this problem though, every main female character was like this. They were all CONSTANTLY mad at each other, getting in fights, and being ridiculous for the tiniest things.
Three other problems with Azalea - 1. She slut-shames Jasmine for the entire first half of the book. 2. She's so snotty - let's talk about the time she talks back to her teacher for literally no reason (although, her teacher then went and personally attached Azalea's shortcomings, which was shitty and unrealistic too). 3. Everything was about her. Like when she thought Vim was expelled and she went to him crying and asked, "How can you decide to leave me?" Like, your supposed best-friend just got expelled, and you're thinking about yourself instead of comforting him? Nice.
Finally, there were way too many subplots happening, and it took away from the main story. There were four (the basketball team, student/teacher relationship, two lesbian girls coming out/dating, and Anthony family dynamic), and none of them were fleshed out and explored as much as they could have been if the author had chosen only one or two.
Overall, there was too much going on in this book, it was poorly written, and I hated most of the characters. It's too bad, because I'm so grateful to the author for sending this to me & letting me read it, but I really didn't enjoy it at all.
I have a lot of problems with this book. I think part of the problem was the poor writing, and the other part of the problem is that I am nowhere near the target demographic.
Really, nobody older than middle school should bother reading this book. I truly do think those kids (ages 12-14) might enjoy it, but anyone older than that is going to have trouble with it. It reads very much like a 13 year old girl wrote a novel about how she imagines "older kids" think, feel, and act. It's not realistic at all, and for being a contemporary novel with a very realistic setting, that's not good.
The writing itself was not great - it still needs a good amount of editing, I think. Many grammatical mistakes, and there was no variation in the sentence structure. The language was also VERY fake - no one talks like these characters did (example: "If she has done a lot of things on this Earth, why hasn't she bought this school, or be the President of Centerville?"). Sentence restructuring could have helped this book so much, I almost just wanted to dive in and do it myself.
I also unfortunately hated the main character. Azalea way too sensitive to everything that was said to her. I felt like every other page she was getting mad at someone (even her best friends) for saying something that she interpreted to be mean, even when it wasn't even a bad thing for that person to say. She's not the only one with this problem though, every main female character was like this. They were all CONSTANTLY mad at each other, getting in fights, and being ridiculous for the tiniest things.
Three other problems with Azalea - 1. She slut-shames Jasmine for the entire first half of the book. 2. She's so snotty - let's talk about the time she talks back to her teacher for literally no reason (although, her teacher then went and personally attached Azalea's shortcomings, which was shitty and unrealistic too). 3. Everything was about her. Like when she thought Vim was expelled and she went to him crying and asked, "How can you decide to leave me?" Like, your supposed best-friend just got expelled, and you're thinking about yourself instead of comforting him? Nice.
Finally, there were way too many subplots happening, and it took away from the main story. There were four (the basketball team, student/teacher relationship, two lesbian girls coming out/dating, and Anthony family dynamic), and none of them were fleshed out and explored as much as they could have been if the author had chosen only one or two.
Overall, there was too much going on in this book, it was poorly written, and I hated most of the characters. It's too bad, because I'm so grateful to the author for sending this to me & letting me read it, but I really didn't enjoy it at all.
September 23, 2016
I’ve been reading this book on and off for almost a year now–it’s probably time to throw in the towel.
I got to 52% before giving in–I was hoping this was going to be something different from all the contemporary YA I usually try to read because the blurb was interesting.
There’s just too much I couldn’t stand.
The characters – There’s a representative for every cliche in the universe–they just have more unique names than your normal YA characters. To be honest, a story full of characters with odd names that live in a world full of generic city names made me lol.
Azalea (or Euiea, as she wants to be called–don’t ask me why because it’s never explained!), the heroine, annoys me the most. She’s smarter than everyone else and looks down on everyone, even her friends. How she even has friends with her attitude, idek. She’s a fucking ~special snowflake and I honestly just wanted to punch her in the nose most of the time.
Poorly written characters representing every cliche in the book and no development whatsoever? No, thank you.
The plot – I struggled through half before it dawned on me–it’s just a typical love story where the girl goes through a traumatic breakup, then proceeds to secretly fall in love with her best friend. Wow, after building up Azalea as the perfect girl, she goes and does the most cliche things ever. Er. Okay.
Maybe there’s more to the story. Except I don’t want to continue reading this book anymore. If nothing interesting has happened by at least half of the book, why should I bother?
The writing – The writing and structure was just way too awkward for me to want to continue reading. I had no clue what was happening most of the time because I couldn’t understand what was going on. This book, imo, needs a ton of editing–or a lot of rewriting, really–because it was, quite frankly, awful. Grammar mistakes, incorrect use of idioms, and…just odd writing in general.
"The girls are on their way home. Azalea likes savoring the afternoon air while looking at the gold patches scattered in the western horizon. She reveres Apollo’s curtain call and wants everything to be quiet. The atmosphere usually gives her lots of ideas and queer thoughts. Right now, she is thinking of why the streets of their subdivision are named after Kings and what better names they could have instead."
This description is actually some of the better writing in the book but I’ll never understand why the sun has to be referred to as Apollo. Sure, he’s the god of light and the sun, but this reference just comes out as plain awkward.
I’d recommend reading a different book instead. Y’know, so many books, so little time. So spend your time wisely on better books!
A copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
I got to 52% before giving in–I was hoping this was going to be something different from all the contemporary YA I usually try to read because the blurb was interesting.
There’s just too much I couldn’t stand.
The characters – There’s a representative for every cliche in the universe–they just have more unique names than your normal YA characters. To be honest, a story full of characters with odd names that live in a world full of generic city names made me lol.
Azalea (or Euiea, as she wants to be called–don’t ask me why because it’s never explained!), the heroine, annoys me the most. She’s smarter than everyone else and looks down on everyone, even her friends. How she even has friends with her attitude, idek. She’s a fucking ~special snowflake and I honestly just wanted to punch her in the nose most of the time.
Poorly written characters representing every cliche in the book and no development whatsoever? No, thank you.
The plot – I struggled through half before it dawned on me–it’s just a typical love story where the girl goes through a traumatic breakup, then proceeds to secretly fall in love with her best friend. Wow, after building up Azalea as the perfect girl, she goes and does the most cliche things ever. Er. Okay.
Maybe there’s more to the story. Except I don’t want to continue reading this book anymore. If nothing interesting has happened by at least half of the book, why should I bother?
The writing – The writing and structure was just way too awkward for me to want to continue reading. I had no clue what was happening most of the time because I couldn’t understand what was going on. This book, imo, needs a ton of editing–or a lot of rewriting, really–because it was, quite frankly, awful. Grammar mistakes, incorrect use of idioms, and…just odd writing in general.
"The girls are on their way home. Azalea likes savoring the afternoon air while looking at the gold patches scattered in the western horizon. She reveres Apollo’s curtain call and wants everything to be quiet. The atmosphere usually gives her lots of ideas and queer thoughts. Right now, she is thinking of why the streets of their subdivision are named after Kings and what better names they could have instead."
This description is actually some of the better writing in the book but I’ll never understand why the sun has to be referred to as Apollo. Sure, he’s the god of light and the sun, but this reference just comes out as plain awkward.
I’d recommend reading a different book instead. Y’know, so many books, so little time. So spend your time wisely on better books!
A copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
August 31, 2015
Review:
Protagonist: I tried to write this section multiple times and while I know Azalea's motivations in this book, and who she is a lot of it is way too simplistic and cliche. I never really got a good view of who Azalea is other than the cliche protagonist of a contemporary book who wants to be recognized for her achievements. She like many, if not all, of the characters in this book, is extremely two dimensional without enough substance for me to even comprehend how to start her characterization. She showed a lot of promise if only the author delved more into who she is, at the beginning of the book we get a long rambling paragraph trying to describe who she is, but it was worthless facts that just hovered around her characterization rather then diving deep. She likes to be called Euiea, even though that's never explained, and she can be childish, vapid, and pretentious which was extremely off-putting.
Romance: Was there romance in this book? I mean I know there was supposed to be, but every time I felt like there was a hint at the romance, the narration would just pull attention away from it, making me think many times that I misconstrued something that I really didn't. Most of the blame could probably be blamed on the writing, which I'll get to in a second, but even then I felt there needed to be more tension and chemistry between Azalea and her love interest, because if it wasn't for the end and some random off hand comments that were usually swept under the rug I would have left this part out entirely.
Writing: Oh my God! The writing in this book was awful. I'm sorry, this part may sound harsh, but this book lacked talented writing and finesse. I'm not sure if the copy of the book that I received from the author was a rough draft, but it certainly felt that way. I couldn't help but think that the author just pounded out the book and never even bothered to look it over or send it to an editor. The writing is clunky, confusing, at times contradictory, and near painful to read. Sometimes the book even felt like it was written by two different people, sometimes things would be needlessly lengthened, but other times the author would toss in poorly used slang and would abbreviate others which just felt pointless. This book needed to go through some sort of editing process, because it's books like these that give indie and self-published books a bad name.
World-Building: Where the heck does this book take place. I know it takes place in "Centerville," but Centerville where? I ask this because the "University" that these kids go to is like none I've ever heard of. They have bells to signal the end of the school day, they have periods, and when a student gets in trouble with a teacher, who by the way was being a total prick, has to have her parents come down and talk to the teacher before she can come back to class, also can you get suspended from college or university? I know you can be kicked out and get put on academic probation but I've never heard of anyone ever getting suspended from classes. It felt more like a high school than anything and it made me wonder why in the world it wasn't just set in a high school setting. Another thing is the names these characters have, the names themselves are fine, but every character seems to have three or more names their friends call them, their first name, last name, and one or more nicknames. It'd be fine if their friends chose one or two but they usually fluctuate between all of them which got horribly confusing at times. Finally can we talk about the lack of creativity in the names of some of the side characters and places in this book? Such as Mr. History (yes, as far as I could tell that's his real name) who teaches, what else, history. Or the fact that the only towns and cities we hear of are Centerville, Northville, Southville, Eastville, and Westville? There really needed to be more thought put into those names than that.
Predictability: I will say that there were moments that I didn't expect, but they didn't surprise me. I think most of the time that I didn't see something coming it was because the writing was too convoluted for me to really get any sense of what was coming. For the most part though the foreshadowing that I could see was so absurdly obvious, that I never even felt a touch of pride for predicting it and was more upset with the characters for not seeing that coming.
Ending: The ending to this book was really weird because for the most part it wrapped up every little thread left hanging except one that was left in the air. I know the whole theme of this book was that sometimes there's no endings and things are just to be continued, but since I went into this believing it to be a standalone, I wanted there to be something less interesting to be left in the air should that have happened. Now, though I honestly don't know if this is the first book in a series or not, Goodreads doesn't say it's a series but Amazon says that this is book number one, so I'm not quite sure.
Rating:
Okay, so I usually save one star reviews for if I ever posted a DNF review, but the only reason I didn't DNF this book was because it was short, and I'm too optimistic for my own good and hoped that this book would somehow get better. There's a lot of promise in the plot, but it just really needs an overhaul. If this is the first book in a series, I'm satisfied enough that I feel absolutely no need to continue.
Protagonist: I tried to write this section multiple times and while I know Azalea's motivations in this book, and who she is a lot of it is way too simplistic and cliche. I never really got a good view of who Azalea is other than the cliche protagonist of a contemporary book who wants to be recognized for her achievements. She like many, if not all, of the characters in this book, is extremely two dimensional without enough substance for me to even comprehend how to start her characterization. She showed a lot of promise if only the author delved more into who she is, at the beginning of the book we get a long rambling paragraph trying to describe who she is, but it was worthless facts that just hovered around her characterization rather then diving deep. She likes to be called Euiea, even though that's never explained, and she can be childish, vapid, and pretentious which was extremely off-putting.
Romance: Was there romance in this book? I mean I know there was supposed to be, but every time I felt like there was a hint at the romance, the narration would just pull attention away from it, making me think many times that I misconstrued something that I really didn't. Most of the blame could probably be blamed on the writing, which I'll get to in a second, but even then I felt there needed to be more tension and chemistry between Azalea and her love interest, because if it wasn't for the end and some random off hand comments that were usually swept under the rug I would have left this part out entirely.
Writing: Oh my God! The writing in this book was awful. I'm sorry, this part may sound harsh, but this book lacked talented writing and finesse. I'm not sure if the copy of the book that I received from the author was a rough draft, but it certainly felt that way. I couldn't help but think that the author just pounded out the book and never even bothered to look it over or send it to an editor. The writing is clunky, confusing, at times contradictory, and near painful to read. Sometimes the book even felt like it was written by two different people, sometimes things would be needlessly lengthened, but other times the author would toss in poorly used slang and would abbreviate others which just felt pointless. This book needed to go through some sort of editing process, because it's books like these that give indie and self-published books a bad name.
World-Building: Where the heck does this book take place. I know it takes place in "Centerville," but Centerville where? I ask this because the "University" that these kids go to is like none I've ever heard of. They have bells to signal the end of the school day, they have periods, and when a student gets in trouble with a teacher, who by the way was being a total prick, has to have her parents come down and talk to the teacher before she can come back to class, also can you get suspended from college or university? I know you can be kicked out and get put on academic probation but I've never heard of anyone ever getting suspended from classes. It felt more like a high school than anything and it made me wonder why in the world it wasn't just set in a high school setting. Another thing is the names these characters have, the names themselves are fine, but every character seems to have three or more names their friends call them, their first name, last name, and one or more nicknames. It'd be fine if their friends chose one or two but they usually fluctuate between all of them which got horribly confusing at times. Finally can we talk about the lack of creativity in the names of some of the side characters and places in this book? Such as Mr. History (yes, as far as I could tell that's his real name) who teaches, what else, history. Or the fact that the only towns and cities we hear of are Centerville, Northville, Southville, Eastville, and Westville? There really needed to be more thought put into those names than that.
Predictability: I will say that there were moments that I didn't expect, but they didn't surprise me. I think most of the time that I didn't see something coming it was because the writing was too convoluted for me to really get any sense of what was coming. For the most part though the foreshadowing that I could see was so absurdly obvious, that I never even felt a touch of pride for predicting it and was more upset with the characters for not seeing that coming.
Ending: The ending to this book was really weird because for the most part it wrapped up every little thread left hanging except one that was left in the air. I know the whole theme of this book was that sometimes there's no endings and things are just to be continued, but since I went into this believing it to be a standalone, I wanted there to be something less interesting to be left in the air should that have happened. Now, though I honestly don't know if this is the first book in a series or not, Goodreads doesn't say it's a series but Amazon says that this is book number one, so I'm not quite sure.
Rating:
Okay, so I usually save one star reviews for if I ever posted a DNF review, but the only reason I didn't DNF this book was because it was short, and I'm too optimistic for my own good and hoped that this book would somehow get better. There's a lot of promise in the plot, but it just really needs an overhaul. If this is the first book in a series, I'm satisfied enough that I feel absolutely no need to continue.
October 12, 2015
THIS BOOK WAS GIVEN TO ME BY THE AUTHOR IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW. THAT DOES NOT AFFECT MY OPINION IN ANY WAYS.
I really liked this book. It is based around a girl named Azalea Anthony. She is a college student. This book revolves around her and her relationships with friends.
I really put off reading this book at first. I didn't know what to think of it, but was interested in the review opportunity. Once I started, I was kind of hooked. This book doesn't have a normal plot, but it still flows without getting boring. The characters were all unique, and they were described perfectly. For that matter, Prex J.D.V. Ybasco did a great job describing everything. The whole book was filled with great descriptions that just added to the story. She also used a lot of vocab words. One weird thing about this book is that it is written in third person. I don't usually read books that are written that way.
This book also has good amount of romance. It adds to the story and is what keeps the plot moving. The main character Azalea was a aspiring writer. She was always trying to get into her school newspaper. I didn't really get all of that part. There were some parts of the book that made me confused.
My favorite part of the book had to be The Big Coffee Shop. It was a unique shop that had a lot of good moments in it. It was also described well.
If there was a second book in this series, I think I would read it.
I really liked this book. It is based around a girl named Azalea Anthony. She is a college student. This book revolves around her and her relationships with friends.
I really put off reading this book at first. I didn't know what to think of it, but was interested in the review opportunity. Once I started, I was kind of hooked. This book doesn't have a normal plot, but it still flows without getting boring. The characters were all unique, and they were described perfectly. For that matter, Prex J.D.V. Ybasco did a great job describing everything. The whole book was filled with great descriptions that just added to the story. She also used a lot of vocab words. One weird thing about this book is that it is written in third person. I don't usually read books that are written that way.
This book also has good amount of romance. It adds to the story and is what keeps the plot moving. The main character Azalea was a aspiring writer. She was always trying to get into her school newspaper. I didn't really get all of that part. There were some parts of the book that made me confused.
My favorite part of the book had to be The Big Coffee Shop. It was a unique shop that had a lot of good moments in it. It was also described well.
If there was a second book in this series, I think I would read it.
Read
February 7, 2016Review copy provided.
This was a really good concept for a story but unfortunately it just didn't work for me. I had a hard time connecting with the characters. I think it was the way it was narrated. I feel I would've made a better connection if it was written from a first person perspective. I found it to be a bit choppy.
I commend the author from veering off the traditional path and giving us something different. I think given a little better execution I would have liked it more. :) And I have no doubt she will be an author to look out for in the future.
http://triciaciak.blogspot.com/
This was a really good concept for a story but unfortunately it just didn't work for me. I had a hard time connecting with the characters. I think it was the way it was narrated. I feel I would've made a better connection if it was written from a first person perspective. I found it to be a bit choppy.
I commend the author from veering off the traditional path and giving us something different. I think given a little better execution I would have liked it more. :) And I have no doubt she will be an author to look out for in the future.
http://triciaciak.blogspot.com/
August 21, 2015
This book is rich in description and imagery. Comparisons to 'Apollo's chariot' being an example. More interestingly, the narrator's characterization particularly that of Azalea's attracts attention. This character trying hard to become a writer finds herself repeatedly rejected by various editors. However, she continues in her endeavor and as she goes through life, she finds herself making a story of her own. Everyone, after all has a story to tell. Whether or not publishers like it is a different story, but they're all important to them as well as to others who would care to listen.
August 2, 2015
I was very excited to read this book, the concept of ending don't always have to be happy or sad was great!
With a great plot and fun characters made this book even better!
With a great plot and fun characters made this book even better!
October 17, 2015
Check out my full review of To Be Continued here: http://lifeafterbooks.com/2015/08/08/...
September 8, 2015
Book: To Be Continued
Author: Prex J.D. V Ybasco
Rating: 2 Out of 5 Stars
I would like to thank Prex J.D.V Ybasco for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
One of the first things that I noticed was the level of immaturity of the characters. Many times I had to keep going back and checking their actual age. Are they really supposed to be in university? They really don't act like it and I really don't know what the author is playing at by doing that. It really got on my nerves very quickly. Make your characters act like their age-that's all I ask. Now had the characters been in high school, I would have found their behavoiur not to be as annoying.
Now, I didn't mind the actual writing that much. It was light and there were a few mistakes, but it wasn't bad. The book was written in a manner that it was a very quick read. The dialogue was okay and the plot was okay. Again, I do think that had the characters acted their age, then, yeah, this probably would have gotten a five star rating. I do like to read books that don't involve that much thinking or guess work. I teach special education and have to do that all day, so it is nice to come home and read something relaxing.
As the book went on, the dialogue did get a lot better. It was really smooth and light and just seemed to flow together so naturally. I just love in books when that happens. Not very many authors have mastered the art of dialogue and Prex just seems to have a knack for it.
However, the more I read, the more and more I read, the more angrier I became with the characters. They were just written in a manner that I thought was appropriate for university students. They did not grow up at all throughout the book. I was just very disappointed with the characters and that is what ruined the book for me. Maybe rework the characters and we will have something.
I do think that there is something here. This book does have a little promise, but it does need a good clean up. I really wanted to give this a higher rating, but I just couldn't make myself do it. The author wanted an honest review and I just couldn't give a four or five star rating.
Author: Prex J.D. V Ybasco
Rating: 2 Out of 5 Stars
I would like to thank Prex J.D.V Ybasco for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
One of the first things that I noticed was the level of immaturity of the characters. Many times I had to keep going back and checking their actual age. Are they really supposed to be in university? They really don't act like it and I really don't know what the author is playing at by doing that. It really got on my nerves very quickly. Make your characters act like their age-that's all I ask. Now had the characters been in high school, I would have found their behavoiur not to be as annoying.
Now, I didn't mind the actual writing that much. It was light and there were a few mistakes, but it wasn't bad. The book was written in a manner that it was a very quick read. The dialogue was okay and the plot was okay. Again, I do think that had the characters acted their age, then, yeah, this probably would have gotten a five star rating. I do like to read books that don't involve that much thinking or guess work. I teach special education and have to do that all day, so it is nice to come home and read something relaxing.
As the book went on, the dialogue did get a lot better. It was really smooth and light and just seemed to flow together so naturally. I just love in books when that happens. Not very many authors have mastered the art of dialogue and Prex just seems to have a knack for it.
However, the more I read, the more and more I read, the more angrier I became with the characters. They were just written in a manner that I thought was appropriate for university students. They did not grow up at all throughout the book. I was just very disappointed with the characters and that is what ruined the book for me. Maybe rework the characters and we will have something.
I do think that there is something here. This book does have a little promise, but it does need a good clean up. I really wanted to give this a higher rating, but I just couldn't make myself do it. The author wanted an honest review and I just couldn't give a four or five star rating.
August 8, 2016
THIS BOOK WAS GIVEN TO ME BY THE AUTHOR IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW. THAT DOES NOT AFFECT MY OPINION IN ANY WAYS.
I really liked this book. It is based around a girl named Azalea Anthony. She is a college student. This book revolves around her and her relationships with friends.
I really put off reading this book at first. I didn't know what to think of it, but was interested in the review opportunity. Once I started, I was kind of hooked. This book doesn't have a normal plot, but it still flows without getting boring. The characters were all unique, and they were described perfectly. For that matter, Prex J.D.V. Ybasco did a great job describing everything. The whole book was filled with great descriptions that just added to the story. She also used a lot of vocab words. One weird thing about this book is that it is written in third person. I don't usually read books that are written that way.
This book also has good amount of romance. It adds to the story and is what keeps the plot moving. The main character Azalea was a aspiring writer. She was always trying to get into her school newspaper. I didn't really get all of that part. There were some parts of the book that made me confused.
My favorite part of the book had to be The Big Coffee Shop. It was a unique shop that had a lot of good moments in it. It was also described well.
If there was a second book in this series, I think I would read it.
I really liked this book. It is based around a girl named Azalea Anthony. She is a college student. This book revolves around her and her relationships with friends.
I really put off reading this book at first. I didn't know what to think of it, but was interested in the review opportunity. Once I started, I was kind of hooked. This book doesn't have a normal plot, but it still flows without getting boring. The characters were all unique, and they were described perfectly. For that matter, Prex J.D.V. Ybasco did a great job describing everything. The whole book was filled with great descriptions that just added to the story. She also used a lot of vocab words. One weird thing about this book is that it is written in third person. I don't usually read books that are written that way.
This book also has good amount of romance. It adds to the story and is what keeps the plot moving. The main character Azalea was a aspiring writer. She was always trying to get into her school newspaper. I didn't really get all of that part. There were some parts of the book that made me confused.
My favorite part of the book had to be The Big Coffee Shop. It was a unique shop that had a lot of good moments in it. It was also described well.
If there was a second book in this series, I think I would read it.
September 1, 2015
“To Be Continued,” by Prex J.D.V. Ybasco who was kind enough to send me a PDF copy, a well written romance novel. I think readers can enjoy the humor and relate to this drama filled book. I enjoyed how the author explained the characters' personality through the journal entries and digs deeper into Azale feelings about herself and also how she feels with others and the effects on them by her comments. Life is hard enough on Azale she doesn’t need to play match maker for a snooty girl who doesn’t even know her boyfriend. However there were a few things I did not like about this book. I found that it lost my interest at some points because the lack of plot.
Is there a deeper meaning to this book?
I think it was a smooth writing style not too hard to understand, read it pretty quickly too.
If you want to see the average rating and other reviews of this book or my rating,( I gave a 3.7 too), go to the following links bellow.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=...++
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/reviews...
Is there a deeper meaning to this book?
I think it was a smooth writing style not too hard to understand, read it pretty quickly too.
If you want to see the average rating and other reviews of this book or my rating,( I gave a 3.7 too), go to the following links bellow.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=...++
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/reviews...
February 5, 2022
Maybe get rid of using 'former and latter' completely. It was used so many times that I actually started rolling my eyes. The book definitely needs editing. Also, am I the only one that noticed the wrong gender being applied often? As in we would be talking about Vim, and he would be referred to as 'she'. I wondered at times if this was supposed to be a whole different book, and the author decided to change it and rushed through trying to make it fit.
The author sometimes uses the first name of the character, the last name, or a nickname. It took me forever to figure out who was who, and if I hadn't read a review from someone else, I still wouldn't know who Apollo is.
Maybe I'm alone, but I was confused at times as to what was going on. It started out kind of slow for me, then I was really interested in the story, but then kind of fizzled at the end.
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
The author sometimes uses the first name of the character, the last name, or a nickname. It took me forever to figure out who was who, and if I hadn't read a review from someone else, I still wouldn't know who Apollo is.
Maybe I'm alone, but I was confused at times as to what was going on. It started out kind of slow for me, then I was really interested in the story, but then kind of fizzled at the end.
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
August 19, 2015
A coming of age new and young author with her first book called 'To Be Continued". A real-life attitude tale that is well wrote of nicely placed drama and high end scenario's. A direction that gives rise to an entertaining read.
Endless discoveries with a changing back-drop that sets imaginative scenery to an appealing caliber of mainstream young life. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope to see more from this talented author.
Endless discoveries with a changing back-drop that sets imaginative scenery to an appealing caliber of mainstream young life. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope to see more from this talented author.
August 17, 2015
I received this book in exchange for an honest review. This book just wasn't my cup of tea. I thought there was to much drama in high school when I was in high school. This book is written like a diary. It does have a good point at the end. Life goes on, there is no ending.
Read
August 26, 2015Worth the read. Love that it did not have the usual cliche - girl meets boy, girl gets boy...maybe. It keeps you guessing.
May 3, 2016
I have my review of this book here in my blog.
https://gabrielleluna.wordpress.com/2...
https://gabrielleluna.wordpress.com/2...
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews