Friday, March 30, 2012

Star Crossed:

"A worried crease lined
his forehead.
"Just how planned
is this plan of yours?""

My rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.
I love a good adventure full of conspiracy and plot twists. I had long been forgoing this books, brushing it off, returning it back to the library twice without a second glance, but while on vacation I found myself in need of a medieval romance. What I got, well that was something else indeed!
Digger a strange thief from the great city of Gerse must flee her only home leaving behind the man who loved her so much he gave his life for her and the thieving behaviorisms behind as she becomes lady-in-waiting to Merista Nemair. However, as posing as Celyn Contrare a Nobel woman who was banished and thence escaped from a Cely's monastery she finds healed agreeing to leave by way of sail boat out of her beloved city and into the rural country side where Meri's parents await to whisk her away Digger/Celyn and another snobby nobel women Phandre in tow as her ladies-in-waiting to the high mountains of Bryn Shaer. 
Being a lady-in-waiting should be simplicity at its finest for the wanted thief but just as Digger becomes costumed  to her life of luxuries she is snatched back to her reality by the devilish Lord Daul who has somehow caught in an act of stealing! Digger is appalled because no one has ever caught her before, soon Daul is blackmailing her to become his personal spy among to Nemair's. Like any good thief Digger plans to flee through the rough day pass cut into the mountains, that is until an avalanche crushing any hope for escape. Armed with her rusty wit an old courtesan  acquaintance who is the only one among the Nobles that truly knows where Digger's come from and what she is; thankfully the familiar citybrat sticks to the code of their class, keep the secrets of a fellow thief, she has no choice but to follow through with Lord Daul's demands.
Now Digger must brush off her skills and put them to use in order to keep her secret carefully hidden, but what of the things she learns? Why are wizards baring the mark of Sar hidden away on Nemair's land, where has Digger's dagger gone and why would Daul own a magic lock if he is so devoted to the Greenmen's cause? Then the pieces start clicking together, each one distinct but improbable, explicit and most dangerous. Fear of rebellion and heretics spreads through Digger one night during a game of chess with Cwalo.
Then the most dastardly thing happens, Digger finds a trap door and hidden underneath a study's carpet. In the floorboards there is a narrow passageway that leads to a mediocre set of rooms. When Digger explores further she realizes there is a man in there, to her shock it becomes evident that it is the missing prince Wierolf himself. 
When secrets can no longer be kept tightly knotted together for Digger she is forced to tell the truth a concept she has spent her entire life running away from. But when the stakes of not telling the truth far outweigh the consequences suddenly there is not a choice she has left but to come clean and hope the gods are feeling less zestful and  more bored because surly the aftermath of it is bound to be an enchanting tale.
My heaviest complaint being simple: I flung this book at the wall!!! It was so annoying at the end, here comes a bright and shinning opportunity to make a four, maybe even five star book and what do they do they take the climax and stretch it so thin that it becomes nothing but thread and then build on it again. How aggravating it was to be biting your nails one moment and next, well the next your seething wanting to rip the book apart.
Set in a world reeking with unrest and intrigue a citybrat is swept away from the man she loves to a life of soft pleasantries. Rip with adventure and sharp turns of events that would make a military strategy analyst proud, Bunce weaves a wonder of a tale. I was however displeased with the writing style, I felt it was a light too bald for such an interesting story and though the story was appealing to me it was not invigorating. To a point I felt it resembled Graceling only without the jest Graceling had provided, the story was pleasant enough to read and to go a step further it held my attention but it was a slow read. I suggest this partly because there was opportunities in the story where a huge plot twist could have been something awe-inspiring but instead it fizzled dully. I felt it could have been better than it ultimately was. 

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Darkness Becomes Her:


My rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.
Well now that I have successfully ruined my fingernails, bitten them down to roots, I can get on with a review and then possibly Secondhand Charm I hear it is light and pleasant, because boy was this story just a whole bunch a delicious darkness!
Mother nature had never been one to throw out favors and Ari was no exception to this. With teal eyes and silver hair its easy to stand out. Where difference is found in a person, so than can solace can be found. Ari is all too familiar with this as she drifts through her life, and as the realiztion of being always the orphaned girl weighs Ari to the ground she decides enough is enough. Her search for answers leads her to New Orleans where she finds she is not so quite different for the people who enhabit the post-apocoliptic city that thrums with dangers of the supernatural. But what happens when the most fearsome creature to walk the earth fear you? Well Ari does the only sane thing she thinks up, she pokes and prods until answers flow from the monsters mouths.
I enjoyed her writing style, not overly thick, no grammar mistakes, none of the excess 'ands' or badly formed sentences. The words word delicate and precise, cordial and as sharp as a blade, they seemed to thud along with the ruination of New 2, the new name for New Orleans. After receiving a letter from her dead mother Ari is attacked by a man who speaks a strange language and who can stand being shot twice. Worse than killing this man seems to come when he vanishes right before Ari's eyes. It feels as if she should receive some slack after this ordeal but no the story proceeds to where she almost gets run over my a 12 year old and than hitches a ride with her to New 2. 
When Ari arrives in New 2 it is later than a day that she starts to fall in love, meets vampire half-lings, suffers through a mind ripping migraine, and is stolen by another blond haired warrior identical to the one sent to kill her back in Covington. Ari is not a fan of dark places and so when instead of attacking her the warrior drags her off the a cellar Ari is not at all pleased. So much for the protection the Novem's promised her. In her prison she meets the most exciting people including a harpy and a spider woman, than get the most enthrall long news. A Goddess is after her! 
I do so love bitter dry whit, much preferable to the over bubbly optimism that seems to be flooding the main characters  of the YA reading world lately. Kelly Keaton delivers a semi-unoriginal plot that is thick with dark secrets and a strong female. It was darkly seductive and at the same time it felt like I'd read it already; twice. Never has a story unraveled so finely, like spun lace, and been set in such the right place. I am a large fan of New Orleans, withs it roots practically dripping magic, the mystically dark world Ari inhabits couldn't have been set in a better atmosphere.
What an invigorating and enthralling ride that was! Full of romance, ancient myths, determination, a war called forth by the goddess of war herself and all ending with a cry for vengeance.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Ruby Red:

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Being the girl who time travels is not easy, especially when the gene was supposed to skip you. 
Gwyneth a seventeen-year-old prep school girl from an eccentric and reclusive London family was well prepared for everything. She was taught what she should do if her cousin Charlotte ever received dizzy spells, she was taught not to resent Charlotte, taught to always carry chalk so as to mark the place should Charlotte ever disappear in for of her. Which was all well and fine, because the idea of time traveling to Gwen was repulsing; what with all the plagues, the bad hygeine, and the never knowing just what will happen to you, or when your coming back. Yes, Gwen knew exactly what part she would play in her family. She would help her predestined cousin; whom was fated to receive the time traveling gene and then she would go back to her semi-normal teenage existence, gossiping with her best-friend Leslie and watching bad history movies instead of studying. Gwen however, was not at all prepared for the day that she would faint in the middle of the street, landing smack dab in the middle of a completely different era.
When Gwen is thrust head-first into this secret world she never expected nor wanted, it is just about all she can do but scream at the top of her lungs. Handling the judgements of the secret society, shaking off her cousins cold shoulder, dealing the her mother's lies and struggling to wrap her head around her gorgeous time traveling counter-part, Gideon de Villiers. To make matters worse no one in this society seems to trust Gwen, and just when pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place a whole different puzzle shows up and someone says "Now assemble this puzzle and figure out how the two connect." Leaving Gwen with even more confusion and her mothers words proving to be the only self-evident truth there she can close her fist around: A secret is a secret is a secret. 
Not sure who to trust and unconfident that she can protect herself from the growing feelings she has toward Gideon, Gwen decides to just go with it and let the pieces fall where they will 
I immensely disliked how dim-minded the character was made out to be, and for goodness sake child; stick up for yourself! Don't just stand around an gawk at the men. The story was a wondrous adventure that I could help falling in love with. However, as I progressed further into the story, my thrill seemed to wane, it seemed to me that Gier would build up suspense and then...nothing, it would fizzle; leaving me with false satisfaction and a grim determination that the next page will hold at least some answers. Where the book leads off is where it starts up, the conclusion never came because it was never finished, unlike many other story's out there Gier truly sticks to the jest of a trilogy, she keeps the plot fluid and continuous, she doesn't end one adventure but picks up the second book exactly right where the first book left off. This was pleasantly surprising and extremely annoying all at the same time. 
A must read, it was genuinely a fun ride. 

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Day 12 – A Book You Used To Love But Don’t Anymore:

Lucy The Used Up Goose: Extremely Difficult.
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
I find that a lot of books I love I normally tend to say in love with for some reason. I did however, like Escape From Memory by M. Haddix when I first read it and then looking back I realize it was sort of mediocre in a way, too confusing with just enough slight bad grammar to make it annoying. I do critque harshly on writing styles, I like fluid and smooth writing in romance novels, blunt and terse with memoirs, and sharply defined detailing in paranormals. The whole plot of Escape from memory was centered around a teenage girl whose life is thrust into a tail spin of chaos when the secrets of her families past come back to haunt her. It was original, I do admit, but I felt with a story like that, with such potential the writer could have took it three steps further than she had.
Just a snippet of the review to come. Stay tuned.



Saturday, March 17, 2012

Demon In My View:

“Life is nothing
without a little
chaos
to make it interesting.”
― Amelia Atwater-Rhodes,
Demon in My View
My rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.
Jessica Allodolla a secretly published author still attending high school as a Senior realizes suddenly, that the characters of her novel tiger, tiger are real, either that or, she is going insane.
Ash Night, the pseudonym of Jessica, writes a story about her dreamed-up character, the villain Aubrey. But when two transfer students - the sociable and affectionate Caryn and the mysteriously dark Alex - draw Jessica out her social pariah status and into the cut-throat ladder of high school social hierarchy Jessica gets the unsettlingly feeling that Alex is not all he seems and when facts of his life start to match up with the information she created for Aubrey's background story Jessica comes to a horrifying conclusion: Aubrey just might be Alex.
But that's impossible right? So, thinks Jessica and dismisses Caryn's attempts at swaying her mind on the matter. Alex as it seems has hidden agenda's of his own, it's not a common coincidence that he just happens to show up in Jessica's small town, and it is no fatal attraction that draws him to pursue her, Alex has a secret, dark and always lurking like thick smog around the two of them. Why did Alex out of the blue decide to move to Ramsa, why does he hold such a strong profound hatred towards Caryn, and more importantly what happens when everything is revealed? When the pieces click together and Jessica finds out the truth, will she be strong enough to stay away, to resist the alluring pull Alex has over her?
There is a price to be paid when secrets are told? A price that Jessica is finding does not suit her well. 

Day 11 – A Book You Hated

Hate is overrated, Dislike is preferred: Difficult.
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro:
My Rating: 2 1/2 of of 5 stars
When I first picked up this book I had heard lots of good things about it. People posting commentary's saying that the writing was 'defined and eloqaunt' and to its due credit it was. However, though the plot was original and so far the most imagined and well-defined one I've read, it was dreadfully morbid. There was not a single moment in the book when I decided that I liked it, in contrast I respected it.
It took a lot of time to create a novel such as this and as such I give credit to the author, for he developed his thought process precisely and accurately. It was a strong and at times overbearingly so dreadful read that made me want to contact all my close childhood friends and hug them.

To go the the full review click on the books title: Never Let Me Go.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Day 10 – Favorite Classic Book:

Thee Classic: Easy Peasy Lemon Squeeze-y

Fun Fact:
All the Bronte sisters used pseudonyms male names
in place of their own, all ending with the same surname: Bell
Emily used Ellis Bell
Anne used Acton Bell
& Charlotte was Currer Bell

First and foremost: My sincere apologies, my postings have been terse of late and than seemed, to my readers, to have stopped abruptly. A glitch of the most disastrous sorts: writers block & the dreaded occurrence of a sin: sloth. Onward towards the post!
Now I am heavily inclined to say Sherlock Holmes because really in my personal opinion it a wonder of a read. So detailed, entitled and richly direct with a fluid grace to the words. However though, the same can be said of Moby Dick, which I have a such a profound fond relationship with, due to the stimulating fact that my Grandmother and I would read it in her chair everyday after school when I was a little girl.
Taken these books into consideration as I have, I am left again with yet another choice. This choice leads to a damning question: Why only a single Classic book? They are named the Classic's for a reason, one should not be subjected to limit a preference to one singular novel. But, alas I have chosen, and it is Wuthering Heights. The wording so raw and potent, the emotions that cling to every letter, the story of such brutality, the fear in it and the most of all the love. Love has always been a subject that has been dilated, studied, pinpricked, theorized, and written about since the very beginning of human nature, but, rarely is it ever captured so honestly, so frankly and without mercy. Emily Bronte does not hold my favor over Anne but I cannot deny her triumphant in combing literacy and the very essence of what it means to be in love.
This is just a snippet of the review to come.

See Jane Run:

Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5 stars.  Recommendation: Eh, it wouldn't kill you to read this.  The Intrigue: So listen, let's say you weren&...