Thursday, September 22, 2011

Tell It to Naomi




This book is about a teenage boy in high school who is struggling. He has a hot older sister in which everyone looks up to, Naomi. Everything goes wrong when his sister Naomi faxes her brother sample advice column to her ex-boyfriend/ her brother's English teacher and Newspaper Teacher. He starts writing advice to high school classmates..... This doesn't sound to bad right? But what if he's posing as his sister while writing all the advice?

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Cleopatra Confesses


Cleopatra Confesses was an interesting book to read. The back of the book with all of the facts and how she researches was something worth to read. I thought that the story itself was good also this fictional story goes a lot along the lines of the Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra. But if you really wanted to read about her whole life, I wouldn't read this book. While it was all-together very fascinating. it only delved into your younger years, thirteen though eighteen. I was deeply disappointed that it didn't go very much into her relationship with Marc Anthony.

Be sure to watch Cleopatra Starring Elizabeth Taylor! A wonderful companion to this book.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Kiss in Time By Alex Flinn



I loved this book. As you should know, Beastly is a book also by Alex Flinn that has made it big by being made into a movie. She has started making classic fairy tales into funny modern novels.
A Kiss in time is a book based on the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. It is very much the same except the main character in this movie doesn't live in a cottage in the woods for the first sixteen months of her life with fairies. No, no. She is a spoiled brat of a princess because she gets what ever she likes as long as she stays away from the needle of her death.
One day from her sixteen birthday she asks for the most perfect dress in the world for her birthday ball. The king invited all of the finest seamstresses and dress designers to bring their most wonderful dress designs. This is where the princess meets the wicked witch that has cursed her. The next thing she knows. She's being kissed by a boy. A boy in "Old Navy" cloth on him. He tells her that it is 300 years from the year that she fell asleep.  This is where the story gets exciting.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Glow (Sky Chasers #1) by Amy Kathleen Ryan

Glow (Sky Chasers #1) by Amy Kathleen Ryan
Hardcover, 307 pages
Expected publication: September 13th 2011 by St. Martin’s Griffin
What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you’d been promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made survival—not love—the issue?Out in the murky nebula lurks an unseen enemy: the New Horizon. On its way to populate a distant planet in the wake of Earth’s collapse, the ship’s crew has been unable to conceive a generation to continue its mission. They need young girls desperately, or their zealous leader’s efforts will fail. Onboard their sister ship, the Empyrean, the unsuspecting families don’t know an attack is being mounted that could claim the most important among them… Fifteen-year-old Waverly is part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space; she was born on the Empyrean, and the large farming vessel is all she knows. Her concerns are those of any teenager—until Kieran Alden proposes to her. The handsome captain-to-be has everything Waverly could ever want in a husband, and with the pressure to start having children, everyone is sure he’s the best choice. Except for Waverly, who wants more from life than marriage—and is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.
But when the Empyrean faces sudden attack by their assumed allies, they quickly find out that the enemies aren’t all from the outside. – Goodreads
My Opinion: This was interesting. I think that Amanda was my favorite character. She seemed like someone who had influence but didn’t know how much. Also, that she was willing to right a wrong that was committed, I admire that about her. I also really like Waverly. Kiernan seems to be someone who does’t necessarily understand what others are trying to say because he has always been in a position of power.
 
At first the plot reminded of Across the Universe and the other cover for this book is VERY similar to that of Across the Universe. However, as I continued to read the book, the book changed and it allowed me to move past the AtU and it became interesting. I really liked the dual point of view, from Kiernan and Waverly and we get to see the world and what is happening to each of them and how their worlds change. Something that really surprised me though was how the New Horizon treated them and how they did what they did. I have to admit though, Anne Mather wanted power and she got it, she is one smart woman. I wonder if she is going to still be in control in the second novel. She seemed like a very powerful character because of her manipulations. It sort of made me wonder whether you can trust anything she was telling the girls, especially about the history of the training, although it is highly probable that she was telling the truth about that.
 
I really liked Seth as a character as well, he was scared but was willing to step up and help and try to be in charge and keep cool especially when his father died, because of the actions of Kiernan.
 
Overall it was an interesting read and in the end one question kept popping into my mind, What would you do in space without any adults and only having controlled the space shuttle through simulation? Would you panic?
 
Overall: 4.5 out of 5

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Wolfsbane (Nightshade #2) by Andrea Cremer

Wolfsbane (Nightshade #2) by Andrea Cremer
Hardcover, 390 pages
Published July 26th 2011 by Penguin Young Readers Group
When Calla Tor wakes up in the lair of the Searchers, her sworn enemies, she’s certain her days are numbered. But then the Searchers make her an offer—one that gives her the chance to destroy her former masters and save the pack—and the man—she left behind. Is Ren worth the price of her freedom? And will Shay stand by her side no matter what? Now in control of her own destiny, Calla must decide which battles are worth fighting and how many trials true love can endure and still survive. – Goodreads
My opinion: I have to admit that i was surprised by this one. Most of the time when new books are published in a series, they aren’t as good as the first. However, I think this might have been better than Nightshade. I really liked the progress between the relationships of the characters. The only disappointment I had was that Ren wasn’t as much in the book as I had hoped. I also had my reservations about the cover, I really really really liked the old ones but now that I see the cover in my hands on the book, its not that bad, in fact its starting to grow on me so that’s good, maybe they should make the covers double-sided. But now lets focus on other things.
I really liked the new characters. Calla improved and so did Shay. There was good background information on who/what Shay is but not enough to make the readers not want to know more. It was just the right amount of information. I really liked the action in the story. Although it wasn’t that much, the whole book seemed to be filled with tension because the The Seekers and the Wolves didn’t know whether they could trust each other or not and the tension was so great that you could feel it, Andrea Cremer did a GREAT job expressing that.
Overall, the book kept me interested in it and I kept wanting to read it. It was a fast and easy read because of how fast paced it was and the book only covers a couple of days/ maybe a week after the ending of Nightshade.
Overall: 4.75 out of 5

To read the first chapter of Bloodrose (Nightshade, #3) click HERE

Saturday, September 3, 2011

A review of John Green's "An Abundance of Katherines"

A former child prodigy named Colin only dates girls named Katherine, and every time he does, they seem to spurn him. He has dated nineteen of them so far, and is starting to despair after the nineteenth of them rejected him after 6 months of being together. In his dejected self pity, he accompanies his best friend Hassan on a road trip across America, and ends up finding laughs, love, and math in the tiny hamlet of Gutshot, Tennessee. The author of this book, John Green, has made many books along these same lines (an erudite, but highly neurotic Woody Allenesque character with a gratingly snarky best friend obsesses over an equally intelligent/neurotic, but inaccessible girl, and learns valuable life lessons along the way), including Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska, and this book, but I chose this one for its happier ending. It was less sad, and awkwardly hormonal than Looking for Alaska, was less existentially postmodern than Paper Towns, and was less disparate in tone than Will Grayson, Will Grayson. It was laugh out loud funny at points, and disenhearteningly sad at others. The main character was so annoying that I wanted to stop reading, but the less irritating side characters lessened my urge to play discus with the book. Over all, quite entertaining and emotionally resonant, even with its flaws, and is my favorite of Green's oeuvre.