The Chemist

I actually really liked this book - it was hard to believe how quickly the heroine let down her guard with a stranger, but hey. Never read twilight so I don't have anything to compare it to, but the story line flowed very well and I loved the action scenes. The fact that parts of the story still surprised me was a big plus ( sometimes you just know what's going to happen next).

Book #20 Read in 2017 The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer This was good, action-packed read. Juliana is an interrogater, a woman for hire that uses medical knowledge to extract information for whomever has hired for her. But she is also being hunted and lives a life on the run. She enters into a job hoping to put all this behind her but gets more than she bargains for when she meets Daniel, a teacher who is supposedly a terrorist, and falls for him. This book had decent twists and turns, along with an engaging plot, interesting characters, romance and guard dogs. I recommend it.

I love Stephenie Meyer's storytelling skill. Her characters and story always grab my attention and pull me into the story. I loved The Host, and was hoping I wouldn't be disappointed in this new book, but I wasn't. The storyline was compelling, the characters had me rooting for them, and it was an enjoyable read.

Leaning towards more of a 3.5 rating simply because of the last 30% or so. Well. This was a highly unusual book for Stephenie Meyer. i have read Twilight and I have read The Host. Both books were good in their own merit. I know, I know. I can already hear the annoying people screeching at me about how Twilight was terrible and blah blah blah. If I ever locate my series, I will re-read them and write about that. But that is for another day. Anyway. On to the review. This book wasn't terrible by any means. It was well written. A lot of mystery surrounding the MC, who goes by Alex for most of the book. She is on the run from the government because of the nature of what she did. Basically she was an interrogator. She was pretty good at it and somewhere along the line, the government turned shady (as it usually does) and decided that they didn't need her anymore. They attempted to kill her, many times. But of course, it didn't work. That's basically the plot. I don't want to give a lot away. For a while, I wasn't sure where this book was going to be heading. It seemed to me that it was just going to be one of those books where we live the life of someone how the run. We learn about how they manage and all that stuff. That was the first for a while and then that changed. Of course, being Stephenie Meyer, she added romance but it wasn't super overwhelming and it was actually kind of refreshing. Alex is emotionally stunted and has been long before she worked for the government. Daniel helped with her that. He showed her how to be an actual human instead of a machine. I liked that. Even Kevin, the brother with his crumbliness, showed her what it means to have a family. This isn't a favorite by any stretch of the imagination. But it was a solid read and I appreciate all the research that Meyer put into it. I could tell she did an extensive amount of research on chemicals, how they react to the body and different branches of the government. Don't expect to be blown out of the water. Meyer is gifted at solid writing and fun dialogue. If you are into Stephenie Meyer, perhaps give this a whirl.

It's not the Host #2 but it's still fucking amazing ❤️

Not the best SM book I've read, but great all the same!

way too slow for a thriller (maintaining tension at this pace required much bigger/more immediate stakes), and from the plot to the relationships to the science some plot devices depend on, it didn't always make sense.

I ended up abandoning this book. It wasn;t that the book was awful like Twilight, it just physically put me off as soon as the romance started because it was illogical. It made absolutely no sense. I had a character who was intelligent and seemed to have the emotional to forgive someone torturing him and still he feel in love with her?!?! I don't think so. He didn't even have a moment of he couldn't physically stand to be in her presence. It was absurd. And then there was a woman who was highly intelligent and had lived on the run who allowed herself to develop any kind of emotional connection, especially something as risky as having a romantic relationship? I don't think so. Look, I enjoy a good thriller and I think I could have accepted the romantic relationship if this book hadn't been over 500 pages! I mean, the pacing was so slow! A thriller should be fast paced and action packed and this one kept stopping and allowed time for romance. By 50% I had given up all hope of being able to stomach it. The characters just came across too unrealistic and the story wasn't fast enough to keep me hooked. If the story had moved on faster I think I might have enjoyed it even if it wouldn't have been a favourite. This wasn't the case. I think I have to finally accept this as proof I am not a Meyer fan. I mean, I liked The Host when it was forced into my hands and I was hoping for a similar experience with this, sadly it wasn't meant to be. It's good to learn and accept these things now.

Enjoyed it, but not sure if I understand what she was running from and if the problem was actually resolved. But an interesting read none the less

Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Review also found here at Booked J. My experiences with Stephenie Meyer's books have always been a mixed bag. I loved Twilight (the first three books, anyways) when I was in high school. The Host wasn't my cup of tea back then but now, I do find I actually love that novel a lot. When I read the synopsis for The Chemist, I had more mixed feelings. I didn't feel a desire to read it straightaway, which is why it's taken me nearly a few years to actually get around to reading it. With her successful prose of The Host, her only other adult fiction release, I had pretty high hopes for The Chemist. It sounded much more gritty and mature than Twilight and The Host, and this is what sold me on picking it up. My initial interest in the novel was that it had a distinct The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen vibe to it. If you watch either, you'll know what plotline the book is mildly reminiscent of. Not fully, but it felt like it could have popped off from the same genre. So, I finally convinced myself to check it out from the library back in January. The bad news is I had to renew, return and check it out multiple times before actually finishing it. At its core, The Chemist has this classic conspiracy theory tone. It is what drew me into it. The issue of it is the execution. Meyer has a lot of plotlines tangling into one another throughout The Chemist but at times it feels like there is this dragging quality to it that makes my mind wander elsewhere. I think we were thrown a lot of information but it was so bleak and underdeveloped at times, that it just left me feeling underwhelmed. There are a lot of overused tropes within The Chemist, as well, which made the plot familiar and tried. I wasn't surprised by one specific plot twist, for example, and the build up of the novel was just... not it? Arguably, the writing quality of it is a vast improvement on Meyer's prose. There's a smoothness to it that we witnessed in The Host, that Twilight lacked, and you can tell she did a lot of research to craft The Chemist. As I've said, there's a grittiness to The Chemist that her prior books hadn't yet accomplished, and that is always a plus.While the central storyline didn't end up being my cup of tea, I can honestly say The Chemist wasn't awful--it just wasn't for me.

This was definitely an improvement in the authors writing and I enjoyed the story and characters. There was a couple of little niggles I had with it but overall it was very enjoyable.