Ukkiwibookgirl

Hiatus

2010-10-23T06:37:00.000-07:00

I have been very neglectful of this blog so I am taking a hiatus from it to focus on my other blog and also a new writing gig I have. You can find views of books from me at http://www.i-zeen.com/.

Review: Anastasia's Secret by Susanne Dunlap

2010-10-09T08:57:00.001-07:00

Anastasia's Secret by Susanne Dunlap

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Anastasia Romonova has always been somewhat of a mystery. The youngest daughter of the last Tsar of Russia and a descendant of Queen Victoria, Anastasia lived a sheltered life with her older sisters and sickly younger brother. History paints her as the joke maker of the family and the one who was in charge of keeping spirits up. Until recently, there had been speculation as to whether or not the Russian princess could have survived her family's slaughter and there have been many theories.

Susanne Dunlap's debut novel is told from Anastasia's point of view and starts from the beginning of the first world war when Anasasia's life really started to change and her privilege was slowly taken away. The central focus is on Anastasia's friendship and later brief romance with a soldier whom she meets and sneaks out with. Sasha (the young soldier) isn't a particular fan of her father but is intrigued by the princess who seeks his conversation and company. Anastasia appears to be starved for company outside her family circle. As the Romonov's situation and treatment becomes more desperate, Anastasia seeks comfort and information from Sasha, who becomes one of the guards essentially keeping the family prisoner.

Sasha does whatever he can to protect Anastasia - pretending he does not know her as anything more than the princess and at times being purposely sharp tongued towards her. When the situation gets dire and Sasha believes her life really is in danger, he tries to convince her to let him smuggle her, and only her out of Russia and to safety.

Susanne Dunlap has definitely done her homework and used the materials and information already known about the family well: it is known during their capture that the Romanov children formed a friendship with the soliders and Susanne Dunlap has worked this into the novel, giving the soliders personalities and names and showing kindness to the girls.

She has rounded out Anastasia's personality so that she becomes a character rather than some intriguing mysterious historical figure.

I have always had a fascination with Anastasia so this book was perfect for me, all the way through the last chapters I was rooting for Sasha to whisk her away and save her even though I knew that's not how it would happen. The only negative comment I have about this book is I wish the Sasha/Anastasia relationship had been developed a bit more and fleshed out a bit and made more of a feature than it was, while it is always in the background, the book focuses more on Anastasia's everyday life than the romance.

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book vlog

2010-09-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here is my first ever v.log! I was really nervous making this so please be kind! :)

Review: The Murderer's daughters

2010-09-22T13:48:00.001-07:00

The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

How deep does the parent/child relationship go? If you saw your father kill your mother in a drunken argument then plunge a knife into your little sister's chest or you were the sister whose chest he plunged the knife into - could you or would you forgive him? Could you still love him? How would it shape the rest of your life?

These are the questions posed in The Murderer's Daughters.

Lulu believes she is the reason her family fell apart: she opened the door to the apartment - she let her father in on the fateful day he murdered her mother and stabbed her sister. The sense of guilt haunts her through out her life and causes her to feel the need to protect her baby sister who she both loves fiercely and resents for her carefree lifestyle and her need to maintain a thread of a relationship with her father.

Merry, the youngest and Daddy's little girl has vague, blurry memories of what happened. She knows it happened but at the same time can't/won't quite believe all the negatives about her daddy. While Lulu insists their father is as good as dead and maintains the story that their parents were killed in a car accident Merry continues to visit her father in prison.

I wasn't sure about this book to start with because of the subject matter - it's an interesting concept to explore but at the same time needs to be handled delicately and with respect as for many people this scenerio is their reality but the author had obviously done her homework and research because this book was a rollercoaster of emotion and so intricately written. I loved how it was written in the first person and switched from Lulu to Merry and portrayed each of their differing emotions and issues.

Not exactly a light read but definitely a great read.

View all my reviews

Book blogger hop

2010-09-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

It's that time of week again! The time to discover new and exciting blogs to follow. This week's funfilled question is:

In honor of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, let's take time this week to honor our favorite book bloggers and why we love them!

So in no particular order - drum roll please - :

Tea Time with Marce - I really just stumbled upon Marce's blog because of the name - I thought it was quirky but she has a great blog to go with it.

Book chick city - one of the first book blogs I really looked at - the features are great such as Where stories are made with author interviews.

These are the two I stumbled upon first and there are so many other blogs which are just incredible which I frequent.

Top Ten Picks - Feel good books

2010-09-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

I'm slightly late for this one this week but anyway here it is: This week's topic is feel good books. Books which provoke warm, fuzzy feelings. Random ramblings created this meme so check her blog out.

Now onto my feel good picks:

1) Winnie the pooh - who doesn't love this loveable little bear. Even a cynic could sit down and read this book and still be enchanted.

2) The Notebook - Ah, this book just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy - Allie and Noah are just great, their love suffers but stays strong and lasts the test of time.

3) Charlie and The Chocolate Factory - there really isn't anything else to say.

4) The Rescue - this one's a bit soap opera-ish but still a really heartwarming story.

5) Alice in Wonderland - slightly trippy but what's not to love?

6) Hairy Maclary - I worshipped this book as a child and the author is from New Zealand. The language is just so flowy and Hairy is cute.

7) The Cat in the Hat - Dr. Seuss was a genius - his language was so rhythmic, delicious and funny.

8) Emma - what would a list of feel good books be without a little Jane Austen? Jane Austen's writing makes me wish for a time past - a time with flowy, romantic language, gentlemen and the lost art of the letter.

9) Mary Poppins - I always wished for a nanny like her (not that I had a nanny to begin with) - some singing, motherly figure who'd fix all the familial problems.

10) Charlotte's Web - Wilber was so super cute, Charlotte wise just a gorgeous book.

Book Blogger Hop

2010-09-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

Go over to crazy-for-books.com to participate - it's free and it's fun ;)

This week's question/topic is favourite post or review posted in the last three months so here's mine:

authors to dine with

Follow Friday

2010-09-03T08:26:00.000-07:00

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by parajunkee:

To join the fun and make brand new shiny book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

1.Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host { parajunkee.com} and any one else you want to follow on the list
2.Follow Parajunkee's Featured Bloggers http://nymfaux.blogspot.com/

Remember if someone follows you it's generally polite to follow back. Simple, huh? So, go on, get following, you know you want to :)

Book Blogger Hop

2010-09-03T07:55:00.000-07:00

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by crazy-for-books and is a wonderful way for book bloggers to connect with each other and increase their follows.

This week's question is: Do you judge a book by it's cover?

The majority of the time: yes. If a cover doesn't jump out at me in the bookshop then I'm not as likely to pick it up and peruse it. It's not the defining factor on whether or not I purchase a book - there are other factors such as the title itself, if I have read anything else by the same author, if I've read good reviews for it - but the cover is definitely a factor, it's got to intrigue me.

If you want to join in on the hop go over to crazy for books and check it out.

Review: What Alice Forgot

2010-09-02T08:20:00.000-07:00

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When we first meet Alice she is floating in a dreamlike state and all she can smell is lavender. Her eyelids flutter open and she believes she is twenty-nine and pregnant with her sultana - her first baby, her husband and her have an idyllic beautifully loving, passionate marriage and the year is 1998. It's in fact 2008, she is the mother of three children, her husband apparently now hates her and they are getting a divorce and she has turned into the kind of person she never wished to be.

Her eldest child believes she hates her, her sister walks on eggshells around her and can't quite believe she's being so friendly and her husband just wants to know if with her memory loss she is capable of looking after the three children she doesn't remember having.

This is a beautiful book - and just look at that cover- about second chances and reforming your life into what you want it to be and rediscovering the joy in life. Alice's life is now like a blank canvas she can now redesign.

The writing of this book is so intricate that I read it in one day and became so immersed in Alice's story I felt like I was inside her life and head watching it all unfold - I could feel her confusion, her pain and her heart ache. The book is narrated in such a unique way; firstly by Alice, secondly by Alice's sister via her journal and thirdly by Alice's surrogate grandmother through her blog and online comments. This is a really uniquely intriquing book which I just could not put down.

View all my reviews

Top Ten Picks: Book Covers

2010-09-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Top ten picks is a meme hosted by Random Ramblings. This weeks topic is book covers for her entry go here: Random ramblings top ten picks

Now onto mine:

1) Twilight - this is the version of the book I first bought and I love the cover. The hands holding the apple are just the perfect representation of the temptation Bella is for Edward. It represents the push/pull of good and evil as shown in the bible. And the pure white arms against the black background just pop.

2) Fallen: This book cover is part of what attracted me to the book without even knowing the premise. The dark looming background is mysterious and a little bit dangerous. The standing side on in such dark colours almost blends into the background and not being able to see her face adds to the mystery and makes you wonder who she is and what her story is.

3) Charlie and The Chocolate factory: I was just so in love with this book as a child that any cover for it would do it for me.

4) To Kill a Mockingbird - This is the 50th anniversary edition which I actually own - it was given to me as a gift and I absolutely love it, the hardcover grey cover with the symbolic mockingbird and the white lettering is gorgeous.

5) Tomorrow when the war began: This was a book I read as a teenager and I keep going back to it. The cover represents everything the book is about. The ferris wheel lit up coming out of the dark background, the barbed wire representing the town being caged in and held prisoner.

6) PS, I love you - Again this is the version of the book I own, I just adore this cover with the bundle of letters - I love letter writing it's such a lost art and in the concept of this book it's such a beautiful healing thing. A bundle of letters on the cover perfectly represents the concept of the book.

7) The Lovely Bones - This was such a haunting book for me. Because of the subject matter I couldn't decide if I wanted to/was going to read it. In the end I did and it was so beautifully and delicately handled and while Susie's actual death was a bit graphic the rest of the book - as narrated by Susie was more about the aftermath and the pain of letting go. The cover is beautiful, the blue like the sky or the ocean and the bracelet floating at the top to me represents Susie's soul floating somewhere in the place between life and death.

8) Ink exchange - While the book itself didn't really do anything for me, the cover is gorgeous - the tattoo, the girl looking over her shoulder and the purple background as if it were the ink.

9) Hush, Hush - This is the perfect cover for this book - the image of an angel literally crashing through as he falls to earth and from grace and the feathers of his wings flying out as he falls. The grey background is like the stormy skies.

10) The last letter from your lover - while I didn't particularly enjoy the story, the cover appeals to my fascination with letter writing and love letters, it's what attracted me to the book in the first place.

favourite fictional character #4

2010-09-02T07:39:00.000-07:00

Favourite Fictional Character is a weekly meme by the blog : http://wordsmithonia.blogspot.com/. It's where we discuss our favourite fictional characters from books, tv, movies.

Peter Pan:

What child at some point or another didn't wish desperately to be Peter Pan. The boy who never grew up?
Peter was the leader of a gang of mis-fits or lost boys who were lost by their parents and went to neverland never growing up. Why would they? Their adventures in neverland were much more impressive than any a grown up seemed to have.

I also adored Tinkerbell, Peter's best friend who just happened to be a little bit in love with him. Peter was the hero of the story but at the same time he was very self-indulgent, self centred and carried around a huge ego. But why wouldn't he - after all those in Neverland (with the exception of Caption Hook) worshipped him and put him above everyone else.

The ability to fly was Peter's most attractive quality - but it had it's weakness as it was a combination of fairy dust and happy thoughts. He can also mimic voices and the dreaded crocodile which terrifies Caption Hook so immensely.

For me, Peter Pan represents all which is great about being a chid: the joy and the sense that the world is a place filled with fun and adventure, the sense that you can do and be anything you want....

Top ten picks

2010-09-01T04:01:00.000-07:00

Top ten picks is a meme by Random Ramblings, this week is top ten book quotes. Here's a link to hers: Top ten picks: book quotes

And now here's my favourite book quotes:

1) You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view--until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Atticus Finch to daughter Scout, Chapter 3.

2) The problem isn't finding out where you are gonna go-its figuring out what you are gonna do once you get there that is. - Jaime - A Walk to Remember

3) Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us. - Pride and Prejudice

4) Love lends wings to our desires.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS, The Count of Monte Cristo

5) "We walk alone through this world, but if we’re lucky, we have a moment of belonging to something, to someone, that sustains us through a lifetime of loneliness" - The Bronzehorseman

6) "Humans are vulnerable because they're capable of being hurt - Patch in Hush Hush

7) Isn’t it supposed to be like this? The glory of first love, and all that. It’s incredible, isn’t it, the difference between reading about something, seeing it in the pictures, and experiencing it? - Edward Cullen - Twilight

8) "It's hard keeping everything the same when the same things look and feel so different" - Leaving Paradise

9) "I guess by now I should know enough about loss to realize that you never really stop missing someone-you just learn to live around the huge gaping hole of their absence." - Ever in Evermore

10) "how many lives do you need to live, before you find someone worth dying for?" - Fallen

One Moment, One Morning by Sarah Rayner

2010-09-01T02:55:00.000-07:00

One Moment, One Morning by Sarah Rayner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One Moment One Morning explores the relationship between three women who witness a tragedy on the morning train from Brighton to London and how it affects their lives.

Karen is the wife of a man who suddenly goes from laughing with her to collapsing from a heart attack. Lou is the women who is sitting opposite on the train and witnesses the whole painful moment. Anna is Karen's best friend and god mother to her children and is in the train a few carriages away and shares a taxi with Lou before she knows what has happened.

This is a slow moving story with not a lot of action and I've read a few reviews stating it was boring and lacking but for anyone who has experienced grief first hand it is a intriguing exploration of the mixed up emotions, the wondering why, the wondering if there was more you could have done, the split personality you suddenly become trying to maintain some semblance or normality and then falling apart the next minute.

It's not exactly and exciting page turner but the characters are well developed and the writing is fluid and beautifully composed and the author captures the pain of grief beautifully.

View all my reviews

I tried....really I did...

2010-08-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

I just couldn't do it. I tried, I really and truely did but I just couldn't take it any more. I had to abandon trying to read Eat, Pray, Love. It is probably one of the first if not the first book I've ever abandoned and I've struggled through quite a few.

To me she just sounded plain whiney. She was married to a man who seemingly loved her, didn't treat her badly, didn't hit her and seemed to only want to have a loving wife and make some babies. She decided she didn't so she divorced him then complains he wants to take her for all she's got. I felt more sorry for him, he was just some unsuspecting chump.

It was just all about her, I thought it was going to be a journey of learning new cultures, languages, cuisines and love but it seemed to be a forum for her to complain about how miserable her life was....I just found it a little too self indulgent and can't really see what all the hype was about....sorry.

Favourite fictional character #3

2010-08-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

Favourite Fictional Character is a weekly meme by the blog : http://wordsmithonia.blogspot.com/. It's where we discuss our favourite fictional characters from books, tv, movies.

Willy Wonka!

Willy Wonka from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory is this week's pick. The Gene Wilder version not the creepy Johnny Depp version. I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - I believe it was the first if not one of the first chapter books I ever read and I was mesmerised by the idea of winning tickets to a tour of a chocolate factory and then being gifted the entire factory.

Willy Wonka was eccentric and funny and delightfull in the way he dealt with the children and was so nonchalant about the different mishaps which befall the children one by one.

He had all the joy of a child himself and he owned a chocolate factory.

Struggling, struggling, struggling.

2010-08-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

I am officially struggling with books which there seems to be a huge amount of hype about. Couldn't stand Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Found Breaking Dawn ridiculous. Now am struggling my way through Eat, pray, love.

The reason I picked up this book in the first place was because I'd seen the trailer for the movie and it looked good. And because I have a slight adoration for Julia Roberts. But I'm finding the book rather self indulgent...does it improve...did anyone else enjoy it? Thoughts? Comments??

Question/literary tours.

2010-08-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

As you know I am from New Zealand and am living in the Uk. As much of the days out I do are to places with historical or literary connections I was wondering if I made videos of my days out and posted them on my blog and on youtube if anyone would be interested in watching them. Please comment and let me know or tweet me.....

Book review: The last letter from your lover

2010-08-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The good:

The cover is a collage of letter envelopes held together with a ribbon. It's a beautiful nostolgic cover, it reminds me of bundles of letters I used to find in my grandmother's kitchen drawers.

The concept of the book is really what drew me in: the lost art of letter writing. There's just something so much more romantic, heartfelt, sentimental and exciting to receiving a letter. It's the fact that someone has taken pen to paper and taken the time to sit down and write their thoughts and feelings down without the editing tool of the delete button, put it in an envelope, licked a stamp and popped it into the postbox. Having a tangible collection of evidence of a persons thoughts and feelings is intriguing to me. It intrigues me that people could not see each other for spaces of time and maintain this beautiful connected romance through letter.

I liked the idea that a character set in today's time of fast paced technology would find heartfelt love letters from a bygone era and examine what was missing from her own relationship.

The bad:

While the concept of the story was delightful, I found it jumped around a bit too much, it starts with Ellie who finds these love letters then jumps back in time to Jennifer who is having an affair with a man who is unarticulate in person but is so elequent in his letters. We go from Jennifer recovering from an accident back to her meeting her lover for the first time, jump forward again to her struggling with her memory loss then having a screaming match with her husband who knew all about the affair and then somehow it's four years later and she has a child. It's never really explained when she became pregnant, how old the child is or if their's any possibility it's not her husband. For me it was a bit too stereotypical that her husband the rich, powerful business man who gave her everything she could possibly want and who clearly adored her was portrayed as a cold villian and her lover was the man who was coming to save her from it all. While it was portrayed that she was miserable in her marriage, to me it seemed as if she was merely bored.

Overall it was alright but it wasn't the riveting explorations of the lost art of letter writing I thought it would be.

View all my reviews

Booking Through Thursday

2010-08-19T14:24:00.000-07:00

Booking Through Thursday is a meme I found through Tea Time with Marce but the actual meme is at booking through thursday. Here are this week's questions and my answers:

1. Favorite childhood book?

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
2. What are you reading right now?

The Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
3. What books do you have on request at the library?

None at the moment.
4. Bad book habit?
Buying more books when I already have a to be read pile sky high.
5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?

Nothing.
6. Do you have an e-reader?
No, I prefer good old fashioned books.
7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?

One at a time. I like to fully experience the world of the book.
8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?

Not really, now I just write down my thoughts rather than keeping them all in my head.
9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?)
Girl with The Dragon Tattoo.
10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?
Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Not very often, I should try to do that more.
12. What is your reading comfort zone?
General literature, classics, young adult.
13. Can you read on the bus?
Yes, and I do quite frequently.

14. Favorite place to read?
In my bed.

15. What is your policy on book lending?
I'm a bit obsessive about my books so don't really like lending them out.
16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
That's like blasphemy against the book gods.
17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
See the above answer.

18. Not even with text books?

Nope, never.

19. What is your favorite language to read in?

Ah, that would be English as that's the only language I know.
20. What makes you love a book?

The artistry of the plot, the authenticity of the characters and the flow of the words.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?

See above.
22. Favorite genre?
Women's fiction or young adult

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)

Thriller
Favorite biography?
Angela's Ashes.

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
Nope. Not yet.
26. Favorite cookbook?
Don't have a favourite.
27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?

I don't know that I've read anything I'd call inspirational.

28. Favorite reading snack?

Cup of tea or horlicks or hot chocolate.
29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.

Girl with the dragon Tattoo
30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
It's a bit 50/50
31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
I don't really like doing it but I can't say a books good if I didn't enjoy it and it's only my personal opinion.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
Latin or Polish.

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?

James Joyce's Ulysses but I didn't finish it.
34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?

Don't have one at the moment
35. Favorite Poet?
Wilfred Owen and Shakespeare.
36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
Whatever the limit is (usually ten)
37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?
Not often I usually renew them.
38. Favorite fictional character?

Probably Elizabeth Bennett she was just so fiery and fiesty and didn't want to settle for anything less than love and knew who she was within her self and wasn't prepared to change or sacrifice.
39. Favorite fictional villain?
Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer - not from a book but I had the biggest thing for him.
40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?

The Notebook, The Time Traveller's Wife, The Bronzehorseman.
41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.

Maybe a week.
42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
Can't think of one off hand. Ohhh, The Shining scared the heck out of me. I later went back and finished it.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
People trying to talk to me.

44. Favourite film adaption of a novel?

The Notebook.
45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
The Time Traveller's Wife. It was terrible.
46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?

Probably over a hundred pound.
47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Not very often, sometimes I'll read the first chapter in the shop to see if i want to buy it.
48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?

If it was moving too slow or was confusing or if I couldn't connect to the characters.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Yes, in genre and then in alphabetical order by author.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
Keep them.

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?

Breaking Dawn.

52. Name a book that made you angry.

Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. It was terrible.

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
The Time traveller's wife.

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
Girl with the dragon tattoo.
55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Anything by Jane Austen.

Favourite Fictional Character #2

2010-08-19T12:20:00.000-07:00

Favourite Fictional Character is a weekly meme by a blog I've just discovered: wordsmithonia. It's where we discuss our favourite fictional characters from books, tv, movies.

Jem! Jem and the Holograms.

Jem

jem is excitment

ooh ooh jem

jem is adventue

ooh ooh

glamor and glitter, fasion and fame

jem

jem is truly outrajous

truly truly truly outrajous

whoa jem

jem the musics contajous, outrajous

jem is my name no one else is the same

jem is my...

but we're the misfits

our songs are better

we are the misfits

the misfits

and we're going to get her

but we're the misfits

our songs are better

we are the misfits

the misfits

and we're going to get her

jem

jem is truly outrajous, contajous

jem is my name no one else is the same

jem is my name

jem

From wikipedia: Jem, lead singer and frontwoman of the rock group Jem and The Holograms, is in fact the alter ego of Jerrica Benton, owner/manager of Starlight Music. Jerrica adopts this persona with the help of a holographic computer, known as Synergy, which was built by Jerrica's father to be "the ultimate audio-visual entertainment synthesizer" and is bequeathed to Jerrica after his passing. Jerrica is then able to command Synergy to project "the Jem hologram" over herself by means of the remote micro projectors in her earrings, thus disguising her features and clothing and enabling her to assume the Jem persona. Throughout the series Jem tries to keep her identity secret and protect Synergy.

I love, love, loved Jem as a kid, I'd sit in front of the tv and sing away to the theme song. My mum would hire videoes from the store just to shut me up when I'd complain there was no Jem on tv. Jem was the inspiration for my first idea of a career as a singer. And the Misfits were just perfect as the bitchy, badass rivals.

Looking back now, Jem was way ahead of it's time (it ran from 1985-88). From the animation to the fact Jem had a boyfriend, their was a funeral in one of the episodes (which was rare for a cartoon), one of the characters even got slapped. It was such an entertaining show - I always wanted to own a pair of earrings which would transform me into a much cooler version of myself. Oh well, one can dream.

Waiting on Wednesday

2010-08-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/ that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I've just ordered the book 'Eat, pray, love' off amazon:

At the age of thirty-one, Gilbert moved with her husband to the suburbs of New York and began trying to get pregnant, only to realize that she wanted neither a child nor a husband. Three years later, after a protracted divorce, she embarked on a yearlong trip of recovery, with three main stops: Rome, for pleasure (mostly gustatory, with a special emphasis on gelato); an ashram outside of Mumbai, for spiritual searching; and Bali, for “balancing.” These destinations are all on the beaten track, but Gilbert’s exuberance and her self-deprecating humor enliven the proceedings: recalling the first time she attempted to speak directly to God, she says, “It was all I could do to stop myself from saying, ‘I’ve always been a big fan of your work.’ ”

Book review: Girl with the dragon tattoo

2010-08-14T07:40:00.001-07:00

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder - and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, truculent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

I was leant this book and thought I'd jump on the hyped up band wagon and give it a go. Honestly, I can't say I enjoyed it. It took almost half the book to introduce the characters and their background and to get going with the action. Some would say it was just on a slow burn but for me there has to be some excitement or action quite early on to hold my attention.

Before the action unravelled I could see the kind of direction it was going to go - Harriet was in fact not dead - it was hinted at rather blantantly for me.

While the writing was indeed intricate, I found it full of cliches and just too graphic - it left nothing to the imagination when it came to the crimes committed. Unfortunately this won't be a series I'll be continuing with, it just didn't hold up to the hype for me.

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Book review: Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles

2010-08-14T04:19:00.000-07:00

Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nothing has been the same since Caleb Becker left a party drunk, got behind the wheel, and hit Maggie Armstrong. Even after months of painful physical therapy, Maggie walks with a limp. Her social life is nil and a scholarship to study abroad—her chance to escape everyone and their pitying stares — has been canceled.

After a year in juvenile jail, Caleb’s free . . . if freedom means endless nagging from a transition coach and the prying eyes of the entire town. Coming home should feel good, but his family and ex-girlfriend seem like strangers.

Caleb and Maggie are outsiders, pigeon-holed as "criminal" and "freak." Then the truth emerges about what really happened the night of the accident and, once again, everything changes. It’s a bleak and tortuous journey for Caleb and Maggie, yet they end up finding comfort and strength from a surprising source: each other.

This is essentially a story about forgiveness. Could you ever really completely forgive someone who harmed you? Caleb has spent the last year locked up in prison paying for one piece of bad judgement which ended in his neighbour and his sister's best friend being maimed for life.

Maggie is terrified of Caleb and what she thinks she remembers from the accident. He's the reason she can't walk properly, can't play tennis and has lost all her friends. He's also the reason why they all call her a freak. But as Caleb is released from prison and Maggie returns to school, they are constantly thrown together - particularly by the old lady they are both working for.

Caleb's family are falling apart, Maggie is racked with guilt by how much her therapy is costing her single mother and they gradually realise the only person who they can find solace with is the one person they shouldn't.

The concept of this book I found to be realistic and the progression of Maggie and Caleb's relationship to be natural. My one gripe with the book is that Simone Elkeles always seemed to have the boy leaving in order to 'save' the girl just as he's realised he's in love with her.

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Favourite Fictional Characters

2010-08-12T07:25:00.000-07:00

Favourite Fictional Character is a weekly meme by a blog I've just discovered: wordsmithonia. It's where we discuss our favourite fictional characters from books, tv, movies. So, without further ado here's my first Favourite Fictional Character:

ALF: Who didn't love ALF in the late '80s, he was adorable. Alf landed in the Tanner's garage - well perhaps crashed is a better description and they took him in and protected him from being discovered. He was mischievious, saracastic, slovenly and cynical but he had a heart of gold and would do anything for the Tanner's - particularly the children.

I used to love watching ALF and seeing what he'd get up to next: whether it was chasing the cat around: he had a real hunger for cats; or doing a Tom Cruise in the living room. I'd be in fits of giggles. And I had every kind of ALF merchandise available: the movie, colouring books, the action figure.

ALF was the force behind a show which was filled with comedy, drama and science fiction.

Waiting on Wednesday

2010-08-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/ that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I've just ordered off Amazon.co.uk another book by Simone Elkeles - it's not exactly a new release but I can't wait to receive it anyway....

Nothing has been the same since Caleb Becker left a party drunk, got behind the wheel, and hit Maggie Armstrong. Even after months of painful physical therapy, Maggie walks with a limp. Her social life is nil and a scholarship to study abroad—her chance to escape everyone and their pitying stares — has been canceled.
After a year in juvenile jail, Caleb’s free . . . if freedom means endless nagging from a transition coach and the prying eyes of the entire town. Coming home should feel good, but his family and ex-girlfriend seem like strangers.
Caleb and Maggie are outsiders, pigeon-holed as "criminal" and "freak." Then the truth emerges about what really happened the night of the accident and, once again, everything changes. It’s a bleak and tortuous journey for Caleb and Maggie, yet they end up finding comfort and strength from a surprising source: each other

Top ten picks: favourite books of all time

2010-08-10T15:42:00.000-07:00

Top ten picks is an original meme hosted by random bookish ramblingswhere she picks a topic and makes a list. This weeks is favourite books of all time here's her list: http://randombookishramblings.blogspot.com/2010/07/top-ten-picks-favorite-books-of-all.html

And now on to my little list:

1) The Bronzehorseman by Paullina Simons: I adore this book - for me it's the ultimate love story - there's the tragedy of war, the pain of forbidden love, the threat of death. It truely is an epic. I stumbled upon this book by accident, I just happened to pick it up in a book shop and couldn't decide whether I wanted to read it or not.

2) Tomorrow when the war began by John Marsden: I read this book when I was in high school and kept coming back to it time and time again. It's set in Australia and is kind of a what if story about the country being invaded and a group of teenagers being the only ones not captured.

3) The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks: Mr Sparks wrote about a kind of love and relationship I could only dream of having. The book literally made me swoon.

4) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: I first read this book when I was about twelve years old after seeing the mini-series on tv. I just adored Lizzie, she was independent, fierce and knew what she wanted from life. She didn't want to marry out of convenience or for stability but for the promise of true love and she wouldn't settle for anything less.

5) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: The only novel Lee ever published was sensational for it's time. It brought into question racial divide and was told through the eyes of a child. It really questions the concepts of innocence and guilt.

6) Stephen King's The Shining: Scares the heck out of me everytime but that's what makes it so great. Honey, I'm hoommme.

7) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl: Roald Dahl was a genius pure and simple. I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a kid. What kid didn't? Who wouldn't want to be Charlie and meet Willie Wonka and inherit a chocolate factory?

8) The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory: This book is what started my slight obsession with Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn and their love which turned to hate.

9) Alice in Wonderland: What more needs to be said?

10) The Catcher in the Rye: The ultimate bad boy rebel without a cause story - not as shocking now but for it's time it sure was.

On my wishlist #10

2010-08-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

On My Wishlist is a weekly meme hosted by http://www.bookchickcity.com/ whose blog I absolutely love. Anyway, On My Wishlist is where we can post our list of books which are on the list to be read, wishing we owned....books we covet.

This week's book is The last letter from your lover by Jojo Moyes.

When journalist Ellie looks through her newspaper's archives for a story, she doesn’t think she'll find anything of interest. Instead she discovers a letter from 1960, written by a man asking his lover to leave her husband – and Ellie is caught up in the intrigue of a past love affair. Despite, or perhaps because of her own romantic entanglements with a married man.

In 1960, Jennifer wakes up in hospital after a car accident. She can't remember anything – her husband, her friends, who she used to be. And then, when she returns home, she uncovers a hidden letter, and begins to remember the lover she was willing to risk everything for. Ellie and Jennifer's stories of passion, adultery and loss are wound together in this richly emotive novel – interspersed with real 'last letters'.

What draws me to this story most is the beautiful cover art - I'm a sucker for letters and love letters are a lost art I really wish would come back.

Waiting on Wednesday: Rules of Attraction

2010-08-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted breaking the spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles
published: April 27th 2010 by Walker & Company (first published 2010)

When Carlos Fuentes returns to America after living in Mexico for a year, he doesn’t want any part of the life his older brother, Alex, has laid out for him at a high school in Colorado . Carlos likes living his life on the edge and wants to carve his own path—just like Alex did. Then he meets Kiara Westford. She doesn’t talk much and is completely intimidated by Carlos’ wild ways. As they get to know one another, Carlos assumes Kiara thinks she’s too good for him, and refuses to admit that she might be getting to him. But he soon realizes that being himself is exactly what Kiara needs right now.

Waiting on Wednesday

2010-07-28T15:58:00.000-07:00

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted Breaking the spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Linger (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2):
published: July 20th 2010 by Scholastic Press

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past...and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabel, who already lost her brother to the wolves...and is nonetheless drawn to Cole. At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love--the light and the dark, the warm and the cold--in a way you will never forget.

2010-07-28T08:24:00.001-07:00

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On my wishlist #9

2010-07-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

On My Wishlist is a weekly meme hosted by Book Chick City whose blog I absolutely love. Anyway, On My Wishlist is where we can post our list of books which are on the list to be read, wishing we owned....books we covet.

This On My Wishlist I'm going a little bit retro, I would love to own and re-read Peter Pan. I loved this story as a child, the story of the boy who never grew up was like my fantasy. I saw the prospect of being an adult as being very boring and the idea of sword fights with pirates and flying around with my own personal fairy was like heaven for me....

Goodreads blurb: The boy who refuses to grow up teaches Wendy and her younger brothers how to fly. Then it's off to magical Neverneverland for adventures with mermaids, Indians, and wicked Captain Hook and his pirate crew.

Follow Friday

2010-07-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

So Follow Friday is a meme hosted by parajunkee:

To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

1.Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host { parajunkee.com} and any one else you want to follow on the list

2.Follow Parajunkee's Featured Bloggers - toreadornottoread-vampangel.blogspot.com/

3.Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.

follow as many people as you can/like and remember if someone follows you it's generally polite to follow them back :)

Top Ten Picks: Favourite Male Literary Characters

2010-07-22T14:20:00.000-07:00

Top ten picks is an original meme hosted by random bookish ramblings where she picks a topic and makes a list. This weeks is favourite male literary characters here's her list http://randombookishramblings.blogspot.com/2010/07/top-ten-picks-favorite-male-literary.html

And my list is below:

1. Romeo. Yes I said it: Romeo as in Romeo and Juliet. He was my original literary crush. He died for his love. sigh.

2. Mr Darcy. Pride and Prejudice. I don't know a lot of girls who have read Pride and Prejudice and haven't swooned for Darcy.

3. Alexander from The Bronzehorseman. Alexander is a strong masculine character who would do anything to protect his love while he tries to control the situations he at the same time accepts Tatiana's strong will and her own ability to be a strong character.

4. Sam from Shiver. Sam, as a wolf protected Grace from his own pack and later literally falls into her life again. He is torn by the elements and the seasons, constantly battling to remain human but even as a wolf still maintains a sense of integrity and what is right and wrong.

5. Patch from Hush, Hush. Patch is such a bad boy, dangerous character, he's dark and mysterious, just the kind of guy I would be attracted to. When we first met him I found him cocky and wondered what his intentions were and then it was made clear his sights had always been on Nora but his intentions were more sinister at the start until he started to fall for her. Literally the bad boy turned good.

6. Noah from The Notebook. When reading The Notebook, I felt worse for Noah than I did for Allie; Noah was the one who seemed to suffer the most. After they broke up, Allie moved on and found new love but Noah suffered for his affection.

7. Landon Carter. A Walk to Remember. Landon was the bad boy who was forced to work with the good, minister's daughter, a girl he and his friends picked on. He evidently warms to her and they form a tentative relationship and he becomes determined to do whatever he can to keep her happy and safe.

8. Alex from Perfect Chemistry. The gang guy who has good intentions for doing what he is doing: to protect his family. He looks at Brittany as the blonde, cheerleader, the untouchable, until he's paired up with her in chemistry and they start to look past what they think they know about each other. Watching Alex realise he's in love with Brittany and then trying to do whatever he can to either protect her or just be with her makes you realise he's not as tough as he seems.

9. Jesse in the Mediator series by Meg Cabot. Ah, Jesse. I remember reading the Mediator series as a teenager and swooning. Jesse is the hot ghost in Suze's room who is gentlemanly and protective of her and who would rather stay a ghost than move on because of her.

10. Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird is a good man through and through, singlehandedly raising his two child and trying to install in them a good sense of morals and to teach them that all isn't always as it appears. In a time which there was still a huge racial divide he tries to teach his children that colour does not matter.

Which authors dead or alive would you want to have dinner with?

2010-07-22T10:52:00.000-07:00

When I was in University I was in one of my classes (I believe it was English Literature) and my tutor asked us to write an essay on which authors dead or alive we would like to sit down and have a meal with. So, I thought it would make a really interesting blog post and here are my top ten authors.

1. Jane Austen: I'd love to sit down with her and ask her about her England: what the country was like, the politics, the society. I'd like to ask her questions such as how she came up with her stories, if the characters are based on her family or circle of friends or if she immortalised any of those she disliked into fiction. I'd also like to ask her if she ever had a Mister Darcy.

2. Phillipa Simons: The Bronzehorseman is one of if not my favourite book of all time. It's from this book that my obsession with visiting Russia stemmed from. I'd like to talk to Ms Simons about her inspiration for the book and for the character of Alexander and what life was like for her and her family first living in Russia then relocating to the states. I'd also like to get her perspective on where the best places to visit in Russia are.

3. Roald Dahl: Roald Dahl's books were a main staple of my literary childhood. I think Charlie and the Chocolate factory was the first novel I read cover to cover by myself. I remember sitting in bed with the covers pulled up to my chin and a mug of hot chocolate reading about Charlie and Grandpa Joe's adventure through the factory. I'd love to see if Mr Dahl was as exciting and as humour filled as his writing was and where and how he dreamed up his sumptuous tales.

4. Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird was just a pure delight to read during highschool and the burning question which has always been in my mind is: why did she only ever publish one novel? I'd also like to ask what it was like having Truman Capote as a friend and what it was like traveling with him when he did his research for 'In Cold Blood'.

5. Shakespeare: I just had to put him in. There's so much mystery surrounding his life: Even in as much that there's questions as to whether or not he really did write his works.

6. Frank McCourt: Anyone who has read Angela's Ashes will understand why and those who haven't should definitely read it: this man grew up in a miserable life of despair but still managed to find humour in it.

7. Jodi Picoult: I'd love to follow her through a working day and see the writing process, she has written some of the most thought provoking literature I've read.

8. J.M.Barry: Who wouldn't want to dine with the man who created Peter Pan? This man come up with Peter Pan, Caption Hook, Neverland. He must have had a childlike imagination mixed with the literary genius of an adult.

9. Nicholas Sparks: His books are heartwrenching and delightful all at once and he always manages to make me fall for his main character - Noah in the Notebook. His female leads are also strong characters - vulnerable but not pushovers.

10. Finally, Lewis Carroll: I've visited Oxford University where Carroll dreamed up Alice's adventures but it would just be magical to go on a tour with the man himself and see the locations where he came up with the ideas and hear the real stories behind the characters and situations.

I'd love to know who you all would like to sit at a table with so join in....

What I'm reading right now

2010-07-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

So, I'm not usually one to jump on the bandwagon of books which are massively hyped up - I avoided the Davinci Code like the plague and wouldn't even consider picking up the Twilight books until I finally caved and read the back of the book in Waterstones so it's safe to say I haven't bought into the hype surrounding The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo - sure I've read the reviews in the paper and magazines but it just didn't seem like my kind of book. Then I saw the trailer for the movie and it looks incredible. I'm a firm believer in reading the book before seeing a movie version because books are usually that much better so when someone offered to lend me the book I said thank you.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo isn't my usual kind of read, I'm not really attracted to thrillers especially ones with multiple narratives but I'm going to give this one a go. Has anyone read it? I'd be really interested in your comments/thoughts/critisims of it....

2010-07-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's can't wait for it book is:

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick:
Published: October 19th 2010 by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Summary on Goodreads:

The sequel to the New York Times Best selling phenomenon, Hush, Hush!

Nora should have know her life was far from perfect. Despite starting a relationship with her guardian angel, Patch (who, title aside, can be described anything but angelic), and surviving an attempt on her life, things are not looking up. Patch is starting to pull away and Nora can't figure out if it's for her best interest or if his interest has shifted to her arch-enemy Marcie Millar. Not to mention that Nora is haunted by images of her father and she becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to him that night he left for Portland and never came home.

The farther Nora delves into the mystery of her father's death, the more she comes to question if her Nephilim blood line has something to do with it as well as why she seems to be in danger more than the average girl. Since Patch isn't answering her questions and seems to be standing in her way, she has to start finding the answers on her own. Relying too heavily on the fact that she has a guardian angel puts Nora at risk again and again. But can she really count on Patch or is he hiding secrets darker than she can even imagine?

The mediator: Shadowland

2010-07-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

Shadowland by Meg Cabot

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Suze is just your average sixteen year old girl. Except she has the ability to see and interact with ghosts. When she moves across the country to live with your mother and her new stepfather she thinks it will be the end of her entanglement with the afterlife...but the house turns out to be from the eighteenth century as does the hot guy ghost invading her room...oh and her school is also older than the hills and the only reason there's space for her in school is because some girl offed herself and is now pissed off and haunting the place.

Ah...the mediator series. I read and loved these as a teenager. I had such an incredible crush on Jesse. And who wouldn't? He's a hero who is always there to help Suze out when she needs but can also step back and let her kick butt. He's also a consummate gentleman.

Meg Cabot wrote this with such intricate detail that even the most cynical reader could picture the events described in their minds eyes.

Suze is sassy and vulnerable at the same time and is portrayed as a teenage girl not as being wise beyond her years. There is seriousness mixed in with humour.
Once again as I was as a teenager, I am hooked on this series and swooning for Jesse.

View all my reviews >>

Movie vs Book: Eclipse Contains spoilers

2010-07-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today I hauled my butt to the cinema and sat amongst swooning teenage girls to watch Eclipse the third in the Twilight Saga. I enjoyed the book and enjoyed the movie, for me it was the best movie in the saga so far.

Personally, while I enjoy the story I don't like the Bella characterisation and how dependent she is on the men in her life and can't quite function without a man and the attached melodrama. But then again when I was a teenager it was all about Buffy and Charmed - women who could have their men but also saved the day and kicked arse. I also didn't really think Kristen Stewart was right for the role of Bella, in this movie I found some of her acting a little contrived and not quite natural but much better than the first two and there's no denying her chemistry with Robert Pattinson. Ah, Robert Pattinson - while he doesn't really do it for me, he really is the best possible Edward and in this film he really came into his stride. I loved the interaction between Edward and Jacob the tension and the mutual understanding of their feelings for Bella and their tentative truce was perfectly played though I wished the triangle between the three would have been more deeply explored in the movie.

The fight scenes between wolf and vampire were just perfect - the effects were incredible and it played out almost exactly as it had in my head when I read the book - wolves flying through the air, vampires leaping and biting their prey. I particularily liked the exploration of Rosalie and Jasper's pasts - Rosalie's was a heartwrenching tale of misplaced affection and then revenge and Nikki Reed pulled of the stotic yet vulnerable Rosalie without a hitch and I just love how Rosalie wants what Bella so obviously takes for granted. Jasper's past story is intriguing, he was trained for violence but could feel everything his victims felt. The only disappointing part of Jasper's story in the movie was that the didn't show the flashback scene of Alice waiting for him in the cafe, for me that was the cutest part and it just rounded out Jasper's story completely.

In conclusion the movie didn't quite meet up to my expectations and I prefer the book but it was still enjoyable.

Thoughts? Comments?

Waiting on Wednesday

2010-07-14T15:46:00.000-07:00

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted here, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Forget You by Jennifer Echols
published: 20 July 2010

Goodreads summary:

Why can't you choose what you forget.......and what you remember?

There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four- year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon. But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people— suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

Review: I Heart New York

2010-07-14T13:45:00.000-07:00

I Heart New York by Lindsey Kelk

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Angela Clark has it all: freelance writing career, loving parents, close female best friend and highschool sweetheart/fiance. That is until she catches said fiance in the arms of another woman at best friend's wedding. And it's not a one time thing. After an impressive throwdown/tantrum she packs a bag and gets on the earliest flight to New York. Not knowing where to go or what to do she checks into the first hotel she sees where the desk clerk takes pity on her and befriends her.

Things are all shiny and new from there, she gets to see the city which never sleep with her new best friend, meets not one but two gorgeous guys - one a wall street banker, the other a slightly damaged rock singer and she lands a very sex and the city style gig writing a blog for an online New York magazine.

While this book lacks realism in terms of how often does this type of thing actually happens, it's a great piece of literary escapism. The writing is fluid and makes you forget just how unrealistic the plot is, it's heartwrench, heartwarming and has it's moments of humour added in for good measure and two hot male leads. It's a great book for what it is - guilty pleasure chick-lit.

View all my reviews >>

Waiting on Wednesday

2010-07-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

13 to Life by Shannon Delany
published: June 22nd 2010 by St. Martin's Griffin (first published 2010)

From Goodreads:

Something strange is stalking the small town of Junction…

When junior Jess Gillmansen gets called out of class by Guidance, she can only presume it’s for one of two reasons. Either they’ve finally figured out who wrote the scathing anti-jock editorial in the school newspaper or they’re hosting yet another intervention for her about her mom. Although far from expecting it, she’s relieved to discover Guidance just wants her to show a new student around—but he comes with issues of his own including a police escort.
The newest member of Junction High, Pietr Rusakova has secrets to hide--secrets that will bring big trouble to the small town of Junction—secrets including dramatic changes he’s undergoing that will surely end his life early.

Perfect Chemistry Simone Elkeles

2010-06-18T05:30:00.000-07:00

Brittany Ellis has the picture perfect, cookie cutter life: wealthy parents, the perfect boyfriend, the right clothes, the popular group of friends. But looks can be decieving. There are cracks in her facade. When Brittany is partnered with Alex Fuentes, the bad boy gang member from the wrong side of town, he starts to get under her skin and chips away at the cracks.

Alex is the bad guy in the story and he knows it, in fact he loves it that way. So when he makes a bet with his friends about luring Brittany into his life and into his bed he sees it as nothing more than another challenge. But as they spend more time together thoughts of the bet fly out of his head and he finds himself wanting to get under this girl's skin for purely different reasons. Reasons which have nothing to do with winning a car.

Alex is entangled in a gang he doesn't really want to be a part of but is loyal to the gang in order to protect his family. While Brittany is desparetly trying to keep a handle on her life at home and to keep the outside world from seeing the real her.

It's a story as old as time: the bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks and the preppy good girl who hate each other but who have more in common than they could first imagine. Alex and Brittany's bickering is highly entertaining and there's no mistaking the sexual tension between them. Simone Elkeles takes the cliched story and imbues it with sexual tension and emotional intensity, bringing two individuals who are from the outside so different and who should be able to work together. She mixes in the reality of gang membership and loyalty with wanting something so badly you'd do anything to get and keep it.
The moments when Alex and Brittany realise they have deep running feelings for each other is beautifully written. Watching them sort through their mixed emotions and their sense of loyalty and what's right and wrong and figuring out how to deal with their emotions is delightful and realistic. It was wonderful to see the character's love develop as a slow burn rather than the 'we hate each other one minute then the next love each other' which is commonly portrayed. Simone Elkeles portrays the fluttering of first love but also the consequences of the characters actions which is rarely portrayed in teen novels.

Am back from a long absence

2010-06-18T04:36:00.000-07:00

I'm terribly sorry I have been missing in action for so long....there have been technical difficulties and I found out I have a gluten/wheat intolerance so have been trying to figure out exactly what that would mean for me- figuring out a new diet to go with the fact I don't eat a lot of meat. But now I'm back with a whole new layout (which I'm still trying to figure out how to use).

On My Wishlist #9

2010-03-31T14:57:00.000-07:00

On My Wishlist is a weekly meme hosted by Book Chick City whose blog I absolutely love. Anyway, On My Wishlist is where we can post our list of books which are on the list to be read, wishing we owned....books we covet.

This week's book is Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow

Dru Anderson: Night Hunter. Knife Wielder. Heart Breaker. Dru can sense evil, which helps when she and her Dad are tracking down ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the occasional reanimated corpse. It's a dangerous life, but it's the only one she knows. Then Dru's dad turns up dead and she suddenly finds herself in the middle of a deadly game where every move she makes could be her last. Dru is more special than she realizes - and whatever killed her dad could be coming for her next. Can Dru stay alive long enough to fall for one - or both - of the guys hungry for her affections?

What more could I possibly want? It's got mystery, intrigue, romance and a kick-ass female main character. Can't wait to get my hands on this one.

Random Post

2010-03-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a little random post: I've joined the library! The boyfriend has banned me from buying more books, so I found a loophole in that rule. I toddled to the local Surrey Library and joined up and was so excited about it - you can get books and CDs and DVDs. It's like heaven on earth.
Don't get me wrong I'm still more a fan of buying/owning books but I've always looked the atmosphere of a library - the musky smell of the books, the rustling of pages being turned.

Fierce by Kelly Osbourne

2010-03-28T11:57:00.000-07:00

So, I've just finished reading an autobiography which I must admit I don't really enjoy reading but this one by Kelly Osbourne was a suprisingly witty read. I have always been a sucker for stories about the bad girl gone good - it's a strange fascination. And Kelly Osbourne is one of the ultimate bad girls turned good - with Ozzy Osbourne for a father and Sharon Osbourne for a mother.

This book, when read doesn't appear to be one of those contrived celebrity books where you can just tell that they didn't write it themselves, in this one the style and tone really is that of Kelly Osbourne, it's written the way she speaks.

It touches on growing up with her father's drug addiction and her mother's fierce protection from it, the bullying she suffered at school because of her father's fame, her close relationship with her brother and lastly on her struggle with drugs and self-image. What really makes this biography unique is that she has included advice from experts on fashion, beauty, drug addiction and eatting disorders. It really is a suprisingly intelligent read.

The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult (part of the Jodi Picoult challenge)

2010-03-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

The Tenth Circle - this book is part of the Jodi Picoult challenge I'm participating in.

When Daniel Stone was a child, he was the only white boy in a native Eskimo village where his mother taught, and he was teased mercilessly because he was different. He fought back, the baddest of the bad kids: stealing, drinking, robbing and cheating his way out of the Alaskan bush – where he honed his artistic talent, fell in love with a girl and got her pregnant. To become part of a family, he reinvented himself – jettisoning all that anger to become a docile, devoted husband and father. Fifteen years later, when we meet Daniel again, he is a comic book artist. His wife teaches Dante’s Inferno at a local college; his daughter, Trixie, is the light of his life – and a girl who only knows her father as the even-tempered, mild-mannered man he has been her whole life. Until, that is, she is date raped…and Daniel finds himself struggling, again, with a powerlessness and a rage that may not just swallow him whole, but destroy his family and his future.

I wasn't sure about this book when I first picked it up. Not because I wasn't sure it would be beautifully and intelligently written but because of the subject matter. I already had a preconceived notion of what my opinion and reaction would be.

The teaser on the front cover says: 'Your daughter says she was raped but the man she's accused was her boyfriend.'

Yet again Jodi Picoult has tackled the subject matter in a sensitive but controversial way - it's thought provoking. She takes a seemingly black and white subject and smudges at the edges until it becomes a shade of grey.

The relationship between Daniel and 14 year old Trixie is written in a way which is so relateable if you are or once were a teenage girl: Trixie needs to remain Daddy's little girl but at the same time needs to break away and experience life and claim her own independence.

For Daniel when Trixie comes home and tells him she was raped by the boy who broke her heart, his first instinct is to hunt down the boy and rip him apart. There's no doubt in his mind his little girl is telling the truth - until it's revealed Trixie isn't the virginal angel he wanted her to be but that doesn't mean she's lying, does it?

All through this book I couldn't decide what really happened. I was sure a sexual encounter had occured, I wasn't sure if it was consensual or if perhaps it was a drunken encounter Trixie wished to forget or even if Jason was really the boy who forced himself on Trixie. That's what is so intriguing and intricate about this book, Jodi Picoult takes the subject and examines it and portrays it from every aspect and angle and destroys every pre-conceived notion the reader has and forces the reader to re-examine their thoughts and opinions.

This book is darkly moving, gripping, compelling and tugs at the heart strings - not exactly a light, fluffy read but definitely unmissable.

On My Wishlist #8

2010-03-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

The book on my wishlist this week is 13 to Life by Shannon Delany.

Firstly, I'm just intrigued by the cover art of this book, it's misty blue colour and design on the left hand side give it a tribal feel. And the eyes staring back at you are intense and beg the question as to what mystery lurks behind the eyes. And then there's the deliciously intriguing synopsis:

Something strange is stalking the small town of Junction...

When junior Jess Gillmansen gets called out of class by Guidance, she can only presume it’s for one of two reasons. Either they’ve finally figured out who wrote the scathing anti-jock editorial in the school newspaper or they’re hosting yet another intervention for her about her mom. Although far from expecting it, she’s relieved to discover Guidance just wants her to show a new student around—but he comes with issues of his own including a police escort.

The newest member of Junction High, Pietr Rusakova has secrets to hide--secrets that will bring big trouble to the small town of Junction—secrets including dramatic changes he’s undergoing that will surely end his life early.

2010-03-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

I received the beautiful blogger award from reading with tequila.

Here's the rules:

1. Thank and link to the person that gave you the award

2. Pass the award onto 15 bloggers you've recently discovered and think are fantastic

3. Contact said Blogs and let them know they've won

4. State 7 things about yourself

7 Things about me:

1) I love Nicole Richie....have no idea why but I adore her....random but true.
2) I can't walk past a book shop and not go in...same goes for a chocolate shop...that's my guilty pleasure books and chocolate.
3) I can never throw away old magazine's I keep them and keep them until my boyfriend has a hissy fit and forces me to throw them in the bin.
4) My boyfriend (the one mentioned above) is Polish so hence for him I am learning Polish.
5) I live and work in a Pub and am the only female on any given day.
6) I can read upside down. Yes I am a freak.
7) I have a strange fascination with Russia.

I am passing this award onto:

1) the book junkie
2) http://www.talesofwhimsy.com/
3) http://thebookvixen.blogspot.com/
4) http://www.chrissiescorner.co.uk/
5) http://www.bookworminginthe21stcentury.com/
6) http://www.talesofwhimsy.com/
7) http://thetruebookaddict.blogspot.com/
8)http://thebookvixen.blogspot.com/
9) http://librarygirlreads.blogspot.com/
10)http://redheadedbookchild.blogspot.com/
11)http://www.ahauntofancientpeace.blogspot.com/
12)http://butterflybookreviews.blogspot.com/
13)http://www.thestorysiren.com/
14)http://www.thestorysiren.com/
15)http://mypileofbooks.blogspot.com/2010/03/in-my-mailbox-9.html

On My Wishlist #7

2010-03-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

Seven months ago on a rainy March night, Willow Randall’s parents drank too much wine at dinner and asked her to drive them home. But they never made it – Willow lost control of the car, and both of her parents were killed.

Now seventeen, Willow has left behind her old home, friends, and school – numbing the grim reality of her new life by secretly cutting herself. But everything changes when one of Willow’s new classmates, a boy as sensitive and thoughtful as she is, discovers Willow’s secret and refuses to let her destroy herself.

Why would I want to read a story with such a dark subject matter? Simple, I'm intrigued by stories with characters who are emotionally damaged and manage to dig themselves out of the deep, dark depths of their own personal hell and find their way to healing.

Jodi Picoult Reading Challenge 2010

2010-03-14T01:25:00.000-08:00

Well, I've never done this before. I admit it I'm a challenge virgin but I love Jodi Picoult's books and find them so thought provoking so I decided to join in with this challenge hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books.

Here's what she says about the challenge:

So, I have an entire shelf of my bookcase devoted to Jodi Picoult books. I think there are 15 books on it! Yikes! So, I've decided to do a Jodi Picoult reading challenge in 2010. My goal is to pare down this shelf by half, so I want to read at least 8 of the books. I'll keep track here of my progress and the books I've read!

I'm not sure if there is much interest from other readers and I've never hosted a reading challenge, so this is more of a personal challenge for me. If anyone else is interested in participating, please post a link to your challenge post in Mr. Linky and we can connect as we read her books! I also have no expertise or graphic design knowledge, so I'm clueless about making a fun little challenge badge. If anyone is so inclined, I would be most appreciative!!

Come join me as we read some in-depth, thought-provoking Jodi Picoult books in 2010! Just commit to reading at least one of her books and you can join in the challenge! No other rules! :)

I'm going to aim to read and review five of Jodi Picoult's books - check out the challenge and join in - it's a good one.

Book buying habits....

2010-03-13T01:01:00.000-08:00

This is a discussion post I stumbled across on one of my newly discovered favourite book blogs; The Book Junkie's Bookshelf and I thought I'd share my book buying habits....

I am a book addict. I love books, I love book shops, I love anything book related. Books are my drugs so I can't walk past a book shop without going in for a quick looksie. I can't help it - I have a problem, the books call to me - I swear they do.

I'm not really a big user of the public library, I prefer to purchase the book and own it myself - it's just one of my quirky things but that's not to say that I will never use the library. I will occasionally purchase books off sites such as amazon but again my personal preference is to walk into a book shop where I can experience the books. For me book shopping is a very textile experience, I need to thumb through potential purchases, look at them on the shelf and choose the one which appears to be in the most pristine condition. It's slightly quirky but it's my thing.

Waterstones is my favourite book shop at the moment but I'm dying to try out Foyles and Borders - maybe when I make a trip into London.

The biggest problem for me - if you can call it a problem - is that I read all these reviews and blogs online about these incredible books and then discover that they aren't yet released or aren't availiable for purchase in the UK yet - which is really frustrating for me because I then have a huge wishlist with books I just can't find.

Book Blogger Hop

2010-03-12T00:56:00.000-08:00

Book blogger hop is a new weekly meme by Jennifer from Crazy for Books - here's what she says about it:

Every day I seem to find another book blog that I start following. In the spirit of the Friday Follow, I thought it would be cool to do a Book Blog Hop to give us all bookies a chance to connect and find new blogs that we may be missing out on! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs that they may not know existed!

So, if you'd like to participate, just repost this on your blog, sign MckLinky below, and check out other blogs in MckLinky! Let's connect and make new book bloggy friends!! So, if you consider yourself a book blogger, come join the fun!

To join in stop by crazy for books

Book meme

2010-03-11T14:07:00.000-08:00

I found this meme on my favourite book blog; http://www.bookchickcity.com/2009/08/bookish-meme.html and thought I'd answer the questions myself so here goes:

Hardback, trade paperback or mass market paperback?

For me any of the above is fine. I do tend to sway more towards hardback for my collection but paperbacks are easier to read on the run or out and about...

Waterstones, Borders or Amazon?

I am a Waterstones addict. I openly and freely admit it.

Bookmark or dog-ear?

Bookmark. Dog-ear is bad.

Amazon or brick-and-mortar?

Brick and mortar. I love book shops, I love the textile experience of being able to hold the book in my hands and flip through the pages.

Alphabetize by author, or alphabetize by title, or random?

A little of all three. Sometimes by genre and then by author.

Keep, throw away, or sell?

I keep the majority of my books but if there are any I can bear to part with I will usually take to charity shops or sell.

Keep dust jacket or toss it?

Keep!

Read with dust jacket or remove it?

I usually remove it to keep it from being damaged.

Short story or novel?

Novels.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?

I don't really have an opinion on this one as I haven't read either.

Buy or borrow?

A little of both. But I prefer to buy.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendations, or browse?

Probably all three.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger?

Tidy ending for stand alone novels but if it's a series a cliffhanger makes me want to read the next one.

Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading?

Any time.

Stand-alone or series?

Both. Although with series I find it gives you the chance to really connect with the characters.

Favourite series?

Can't pick just one.

Favorite children’s book?

Anything by Roald Dahl. Alice and Wonderland. Winnie the Pooh.

Favourite YA book?

Hush, Hush or Shiver.

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?

Someone will always have heard of whatever I say so....

Favourite books read last year?

Shiver, Hush, Hush, The Time Traveler's Wife....

Favourite books of all time?

Anything by Jane Austen, The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons, Romeo and Juliet (although not really a book..), The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks - really anything by Nicholas Sparks.

Favorite book to recommend to an 11-year-old?

Roald Dahl - anything by him is just great.

Favorite book to re-read?

The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons

Do you ever smell books?

Yes...it's sad I know, I'm sorry

Do you ever read primary source documents like letters or diaries?

Sometimes.

What are you reading right now?

Right now I'm looking for my next read. A trip to Waterstones is in order.

What are you reading next?

See above.

Back in Action.....

2010-03-11T13:45:00.000-08:00

I know recently I've been slightly awol but the story is I moved out of my lovely flat and back into the pub where I work and the internet has been out of commision so...I apologise...but I'm back now so should be able to update more frequently....fingers crossed.

On My Wishlist #6

2010-01-13T16:35:00.000-08:00

On My Wishlist is a weekly meme hosted by Book Chick City whose blog I absolutely love. Anyway, On My Wishlist is where we can post our list of books which are on the list to be read, wishing we owned....books we covet.

First for this week is Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles:

A modern tale of star-crossed lovers with a fresh urban twist. At Fairfield High School, on the outskirts of Chicago , everyone knows that south-siders mixing with north-siders can be explosive. So when Brittany Ellis and Alejandro “Alex” Fuentes are forced to be lab partners in chemistry class, this human experiment leads to unexpected revelations – that Brittany ’s flawless reputation is a cover for her troubled home life, that Alex’s bad-boy persona hides his desire to break free from gang ties, and that when they’re together, life somehow makes more sense. Breaking through the stereotypes and expectations that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart, Perfect Chemistry takes readers to both sides of the tracks in a passionate love story about looking beneath the surface.

Why this book attracts me: I'm a sucker for the forbidden star crossed love story, Romeo and Juilet was always my favourite Shakespeare play. Anything with a bad boy who falls for the good girl just turns me to mush, two characters who start out hating each other then fall for each other also does it for me...it's that old gem that there's a fine line between love and hate because they're both such intense emotions.

The second book this week is also by Simone Elkeles - Leaving Paradise:

CALEB: I’m happy to be going home after a year of being locked in a juvenile corrections facility for over a year for a hit and run drunk driving accident. But if I’m so happy about it, why am I feeling so anxious? Facing my parents will be rough. I also have to start my senior year of high school and face the kids at school and friends who ditched me after I got arrested. The worst part is that Maggie Armstrong is my next door neighbor.

Who’s Maggie Armstrong? Oh, she’s the girl I went to jail for maiming. I’m reminded of my mistake every day of my life because of her. Life just isn’t fair.

MAGGIE: I can’t believe Caleb Becker is being released early. I planned on going to Spain for my last semester of junior year so I could avoid facing him. But my plans get screwed up because Caleb is released from juvenile jail early. It totally upsets me that my life has been turned upside down because of the accident and Caleb returns and seems to jump right back in where he left off. Life isn’t fair and I hate Caleb with all my soul. But how can I stay away from my nemesis when he’s everywhere I go? I’m reminded how much my life changed every day of my life because of him. Life just isn’t fair.

Firstly, the cover art is just amazing, the black background with the couple holding hands, the hands and arms being all we can see. I love the concept of this book from the reviews and descriptions I've read on the internet; the concept of the person who hurt you or caused you harm also being the only person who can put you back together and heal you.

Movie Cast Mondays

2010-01-11T16:52:00.000-08:00

Movie Cast Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by mindful musings

1) Create your own cast for an upcoming book-to-movie adaptation OR pick a book you'd like to see be turned into a movie and choose a cast.
2) Post the book title, author, and summary.
3) Try to pick at least 3 of the main characters to cast.

This week my casting is for Fallen by Lauren Kate:

Luce: I pictured Luce as being incredibly beautiful with almost porcelain skin so my pick for Luce is Michelle Trachenburg from gossip girl, I loved her when she was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and thought she did the dark goth teenager thing well in 17 Again. She somehow manages to play the fiesty girl and the volunerable girl all at once.

Daniel: I imagined Daniel to be this kind of baby, angelic faced, clean cut looking guy with just the slightest hint of danger about him. The understated rebel....I don't know why but Matt Czuchry from Gilmore Girls just automatically came to mind, I realise he's probably slightly too old but...anyway...

Cam: Ah...the bad guy who really was a bad guy...whoever plays him needs to be dark, mysterious, dangerous and alluring....who did I think of? Penn Badgley...I know, I know, he plays a nice guy in Gossip Girl but he's just so damn good looking and I love to see him play someone like Cam...

Gabbe: Hayden Panettiere...I don't know why she's just who I pictured as Gabbe while I was reading Fallen.

Just Listen - Sarah Dessen

2010-01-06T03:56:00.000-08:00

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

My rating: 2 of 5 stars What can I say? I actually found this book sort of mediocre. I was expecting so much more. Anabel is the girl who on the outside apparently has everything: She's a model, perfect family life. But everything is not as it seems, her older sister is suffering from an eating disorder, she wants to quit modelling but doesn't want to disappoint her mother so hides the truth but refuses to admit she lies. And because of some shameful secret she's keeping about what happened over the summer she's lost all her friends.Enter Owen, the boy tipped to be bad, the outcast with anger managment issues who saves Anabel from the evil gossipers and they develop a friendship based on their arguements over music. Owen prefers the harder side of musical genius whereas Anabel is all about the poppy stuff. To me this story seemed to follow the same formula of the other Sarah Dessen book I've read: Girl with troubled past/issues meets slightly bad boy who proceeds to show her the error of her ways and save her from herself. It just all seems a little repetitive and their relationship didn't really seem to develop. View all my reviews >>

On My Wishlist #5

2010-01-06T01:47:00.000-08:00

On My Wishlist is a weekly meme hosted by Book Chick City whose blog I absolutely love. Anyway, On My Wishlist is where we can post our list of books which are on the list to be read, wishing we owned....books we covet.

The first book on my wishlist this week I discovered on another person's blog - I want to read that - the book is Two Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt:

This is Jordan and Courtney, totally in love. Sure, they were an unlikely high school couple. But they clicked; it worked. They're even going to the same college, and driving cross-country together for orientation.
Then Jordan dumps Courtney -- for a girl he met on the Internet.
It's too late to change plans, so the road trip is on. Courtney's heartbroken, but figures she can tough it out for a few days. La la la -- this is Courtney pretending not to care.
But in a strange twist, Jordan cares. A lot.
Turns out, he's got a secret or two that he's not telling Courtney. And it has everything to do with why they broke up, why they can't get back together, and how, in spite of it all, this couple is destined for each other.

I particularily like the cover art for this book, it portrays that lost feeling that I think the book will highlight - can't wait to read it.

The second book on my wishlist this week is Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler:

Ivy and Tristan are meant to be together. Both stunningly attractive, brilliantly talented and very much in love, they think their happiness will last forever. When a terrible car accident shatters their world, killing Tristan and injuring Ivy, she must face life alone - or so she thinks. However, Tristan is watching over her as her guardian angel - so close she can feel his touch and hear his voice. And no one needs a guardian angel more than Ivy, because someone is trying to kill her. But if Tristan saves Ivy, his mission on earth will be finished, and he'll have to leave her behind. Will saving Ivy mean losing her forever?

I've seen this book in the bookshop and have hummed and harred over it, I'm intrigued by the concept of the story, it's very Romeo and Juliet-esqe but only one half of the couple dies leaving the other to pick up the pieces.

Going Too Far - Jennifer Echols

2010-01-05T03:26:00.000-08:00

Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols

My rating: 4 of 5 stars All Meg has ever wanted is to get away. Away from high school. Away from her backwater town. Away from her parents who seem determined to keep her imprisoned in their dead-end lives. But one crazy evening involving a dare and forbidden railroad tracks, she goes way too far...and almost doesn’t make it back.John made a choice to stay. To enforce the rules. To serve and protect. He has nothing but contempt for what he sees as childish rebellion, and he wants to teach Meg a lesson she won’t soon forget. But Meg pushes him to the limit by questioning everything he learned at the police academy. And when he pushes back, demanding to know why she won’t be tied down, they will drive each other to the edge—and over...The concept for this book is simple: two damaged people forced together to save each other. It's an endearing book about pushing the boundaries and opening up and realising that the one person who can't possibly understand what you've been through is perhaps the only one who really can. Though written from Meg's point of view, I actually felt worse for Officer After, he's trying to do the right thing for whatever reasons and Meg just keeps pushing him and treats him as if he's just a stereotypical back water town cop. Right from the off set he's trying to save Meg and make her realise that the path she's going down is a self-destructive one while she tries to show him there is more to the world than the town they live in. I found Going Too Far to be well written but felt that the speed at which their relationship developed was a little unrealistic but that's just me, I also felt that John wasn't as well described as I'd hoped there was a lot of focus on his intense eyes but other than that I wasn't able to form a clear picture of him in my imagination. Overall though this was an enjoyable, fast read which I would happily read again. View all my reviews >>

Fallen by Lauren Kate

2010-01-04T18:10:00.000-08:00

There's something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price's attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He's the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce--and goes out of his way to make that very clear--she can't let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her.

So after much anticipation and waiting I finally read Fallen, I must admit when I first bought the book it was mainly for the cover art, it's just gorgeous and called to me (yes...books whisper to me...it's fine, it doesn't make me crazy), I actually had no idea what the premise for the book was.

When we first meet Luce she's moving into the Sword and Cross boarding school and adjusting to the restrictions this is causing: giving up her cell phone among other things. Her fellow classmates are quirky - if not slightly crazy and the moment she sets eyes on Daniel she feels a strange sense of deja vu...that is until he proceeds to be rude and makes her feel as if she is crazy. At times I found Luce to be fiesty and a little bit kick ass but at other times she was tentative and not quite with what was going on but still charming in her own way.

And then along comes Cam....ah Cam, the dark, mysterious, hot boy who wants Luce all for himself. I must admit at first I liked Cam a lot more than Daniel, I initially thought Daniel was the bad guy (or at least just a jerk) but you really have to pay attention to what he's not saying and to his actions as opposed to what he does say. As I read more and more I realised what a tortured fallen angel he is, he remembers everything and I could see why Luce would be so drawn to him.

While the action was a slow burner, the characters and their interactions and the way they were all intertwined kept me interested as did the push/pull thing Daniel had going on, pushing Luce away only to pull her back in. The writing was intricate and dark and gothic and I could perfectly conjure up the image of the settings in my mind. I'm really glad this is the first in a series because I would love to learn more about Luce and Daniel's past as well as Cam's - Cam may be bad but there's still just something about him that draws me in and I want to find out why or how he got to be so bad.

Overall, despite the mixed reviews about this book, I really enjoyed it, the writing was great, if not at times a little repetitive and the descriptions were just so details...it's definitely one I'd recommend to be put on the To Be Read lists.

On My Wishlist #4

2009-12-30T12:55:00.000-08:00

On My Wishlist is a weekly meme hosted by Book Chick City where we can share the books we desire, the ones which we are just dying to read...the ones we most covet......

This week's picks are both books by Sarah Dessen - an author I've just recently discovered....

First up is Along for the Ride....

Auden has always felt like the odd one out. Since her parents' divorce she's shied away, studying lots and staying out of the party scene. But now Auden's realized there must be something more and, just like that, she changes everything. Moving to her dad's house opens up a whole new world of beach parties, food fights - and simply having fun. As she gets to know herself - and a secretive boy with dark, brooding eyes - can Auden begin to let go and finally feel like she truly belongs?

Secondly is Lock and Key...

What happens when your past is not just past, but wiped clean entirely? How do you figure out where you're going when you can't even claim where you've been? These were the questions that inspired Lock and Key. It's the story of a girl named Ruby who is abandoned by her mother and determined to make it on her own, even---and especially---when she is sent to live with her long-lost sister in a whole new world of privilege, family, and relationships. As Ruby learns, there's a big difference between being given help and being able to accept it. And sometimes, it takes reaching out to someone else to save yourself.

What I like about Sarah Dessen's books are that while they do follow the boy meets girl formula, they are told from the girl's perspective but the boy isn't the defining factor in the girls life...so I'm really looking forward to reading these two books.

Movie Cast Mondays

2009-12-28T09:56:00.000-08:00

Movie Cast Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by mindful musings

1) Create your own cast for an upcoming book-to-movie adaptation OR pick a book you'd like to see be turned into a movie and choose a cast.

2) Post the book title, author, and summary.

3) Try to pick at least 3 of the main characters to cast.

This week my cast is for Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick:

For Nora I don't know why but I automatically thought of Leighton Meester I think she is just the embodiment of the image of Nora my mind conjured up. Leighton Meester just has that very girl next door look to her.

Patch....I had no idea who I would chose to play patch, I knew he had to be someone who looked mysterious, dark and a little bit dangerous and I couldn't really think of anyone until I was browsing the web and came across the actor Ben Barnes and it was like it clicked into place he is the perfect image of Patch.

For Elliot I decided on Tyler Hilton, I saw him in One Tree Hill and he was cocky, charming and I think he'd play the preppy and darker side of Elliot well...plus he's incredibly good looking which always helps......

On My Wishlist #3

2009-12-23T15:04:00.000-08:00

On My Wishlist is a weekly meme hosted by Book Chick City where we can share the books we desire, the ones which we are just dying to read...the ones we most covet......

Intertwined by Gina Showalter...

There’s something about the new guy at Crossroads High…

Most sixteen-year-olds have friends. Aden Stone has four human souls living inside him:
One can time-travel.
One can raise the dead.
One can tell the future.
And one can possess another human.

With no other family and a life spent in and out of institutions, Aden and the souls have become friends. But now, they’re causing him all kinds of trouble.

Like, he’ll blink and suddenly he’s a younger Aden, reliving the past. One wrong move, and he’ll change the future. Or, he’ll walk past a total stranger and know how and when she’s going to die.

He’s so over it. All he wants is peace.

And then he meets a girl who quiets the voices. Well, for as long as he’s with her. Why? Mary Ann Gray is his total opposite. He’s a loner; she has friends. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks; she tries to make everyone happy. And while he attracts the paranormal, she repels it. For her sake, he should stay away. But it’s too late. . .

Somehow, they share an inexplicable bond of friendship. A bond about to be tested by a werewolf shape-shifter who wants Mary Ann for his own and a vampire princess Aden can’t resist. Two romances, both forbidden. . . doomed. Still, the four will enter a dark underworld of intrigue and danger. . . but not everyone will come out alive. . .

This is one book I've been obsessed with finding for awhile now, the pursuit of this book has led me to many a Waterstones, WHSmith and Foyles store - my next exploration is going to involve trawling through ebay until I find it...I need to read this book.

Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble...

Anastasia Romanov thought she would never feel more alone than when the gunfire started and her family began to fall around her. Surely the bullets would come for her next. But they didn't. Instead, two gnarled old hands reached for her. When she wakes up she discovers that she is in the ancient hut of the witch Baba Yaga, and that some things are worse than being dead.

In modern-day Chicago, Anne doesn't know much about Russian history. She is more concerned about getting into a good college—until the dreams start. She is somewhere else. She is someone else. And she is sharing a small room with a very old woman. The vivid dreams startle her, but not until a handsome stranger offers to explain them does she realize her life is going to change forever. She is the only one who can save Anastasia. But, Anastasia is having her own dreams…

I have always had a strange fascination with this particular part of Russian history and have always had a fascination with what really happened to Anastasia, did she perish with her family or did she as many believe actually survive? So this story really resonates with me as it feeds and at the same time satisfies that fascination.

Teaser Tuesdays

2009-12-22T09:35:00.000-08:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading

1) Grab your current read
2) Open to a random page
3) Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
4) Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their to be read lists if they like your teasers

Here's my teaser:

"'Come on, you didn't think it was cute?'
'Did my trembling give it away?' Luce was already feeling a bit embarrassed by how childish she must have looked."
- page 151 of Fallen by Lauren Kate

Movie Cast Mondays

2009-12-21T13:15:00.000-08:00

Movie Cast Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Mindful Musings - anyone can join in, the guidelines are:

1) Create your own cast for an upcoming book-to-movie adaptation OR pick a book you'd like to see be turned into a movie and choose a cast.

2) Post the book title, author, and summary.

3) Try to pick at least 3 of the main characters to cast.

This week is Evermore by Alyson Noel....

Ever:

Ever is the girl who has lost everything...her whole family in one foul swoop. She was popular at her old school until the fateful day when everything was taken from her. She almost left this world along with her family but something pulled her back and ever since she's able to hear people's innermost thoughts. My pick for who sould play Ever is Emma Roberts (Julia Roberts niece)......I just think she has the right look or else Taylor Swift, I'm not sure if she's an actress as well as a singer but she's just beautiful and she looks how I imagine Ever would.

Riley:

Riley, the little sister who hasn't crossed over with the rest of the family instead haunts her older sister is stuck as a twelve year old girl desperately wanting to be a teen. My choice for Riley would be Dakota Fanning, I've always thought she was a great little actress.....

Damen:

Ah...the hunky boy who has been waiting for Ever forever. He's a little bit dark and dangerous but that's what attracts to him....my pick for Damen is Sean Faris. Isn't he just dreamy?

Framing Friday #2

2009-12-18T06:24:00.000-08:00

Framing Friday is a weekly meme hosted by me. I had this idea of book covers as art and decided to share which book covers I'd like to frame and hang on my walls....

This week's book cover is Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr:

This cover is just beautiful; when I first saw this book cover I thought that the girl was either an angel or a fairy....I loved the purple tones which symbolise the tattooist's ink and the way the wings and tattoo are the main focus and the girl is looking over her shoulder.

On My Wishlist #2

2009-12-16T04:51:00.000-08:00

On My Wishlist is a weekly meme hosted by book chick city at www.bookchickcity.com whose blog I absolutely love. Anyway, On My Wishlist is where we can post our list of books which are on the list to be read, wishing we owned....books we covet.

First up this week is Blue Moon by Alyson Noel - Blue Moon is the second installment of her Immortals Series.

Just as Ever is learning everything she can about her new abilities as an immortal, initiated into the dark, seductive world by her beloved Damen, something terrible is happening to him. As Ever's powers are increasing, Damen's are fading—stricken by a mysterious illness that threatens his memory, his identity, his life.

Desperate to save him, Ever travels to the mystical dimension of Summerland, uncovering not only the secrets of Damen's past—the brutal, tortured history he hoped to keep hidden—but also an ancient text revealing the workings of time. With the approaching blue moon heralding her only window for travel, Ever is forced to decide between turning back the clock and saving her family from the accident that claimed them—or staying in the present and saving Damen, who grows weaker each day...

I can't wait to purchase this book and delve into it, I really enjoyed Evermore and completely fell in love with Damen...

Next up is The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared—the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in blood. But she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night really held. And when Daniel returns three years later, Grace can no longer deny her attraction to him, despite promising Jude she’ll stay away.

As Grace gets closer to Daniel, her actions stir the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind Jude and Daniel's dark secret . . . and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it—her soul.

This book sounds completely compelling and intriguing - it's definitely going on my to be read list....

If you would like to join in on the On My Wishlist meme please go to Book Chick City and check it out, all the details are there.

Teaser Tuesdays

2009-12-15T12:40:00.000-08:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1) Grab your current read
2) Open to a random page
3) Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
4) Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their to be read lists if they like your teasers

Here's my teaser sentences:

"It's not that she was a vegan princess, living off beans. It's she's a vegan princess living off beans."
Dexter just looked at him, completely nonplussed, as if he'd just been given the weather report.

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

Movie Cast Mondays

2009-12-14T11:24:00.000-08:00

Movie Cast Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Mindful Musings - anyone can join in, the guidelines are:

1) Create your own cast for an upcoming book-to-movie adaptation OR pick a book you'd like to see be turned into a movie and choose a cast.
2) Post the book title, author, and summary.
3) Try to pick at least 3 of the main characters to cast.

My pick this week is:

The Bronze Horseman - Paullina Simons

I've been in love with this book for years and have always thought it should be made into a movie, so here's my pick of the cast:

Tatiana:

I have two main options for Tatiana: Amanda Seyfried and Emilie DeRavin.

They both just seem to embody my image of Tatiana; blonde, blue eyed, fraigle, vulnerable with a strength yet to be discovered. While Emilie DeRavin may be slightly to old I think she'd play the part perfectly. I think she'd play the conflicting emotions of Tatiana well - the undying loyalty to her sister and family and the irrevocable attraction and love she feels for Alexander.

Alexander:

Paullina Simons has created the character of Alexander in such a way that he is almost real. He is a soldier in world war two Russia harbouring a secret which could get him and those close to him killed, he is loyal, fiercely protective and hugely flawed. So my pick for an actor to play Alexander is Channing Tatum. He fits the physical attributes of what I've imagined Alexander to be and I think he play the conflicted, brooding solider well.

Dimitri:

Karl Urban - an actor from my homeland - New Zealand. I think he is a brilliant actor but has that kind of slimy, sleazey look that I image of Dimitri. Dimitri is the guy who is Alexander's best friend - the best friend who knows all of Alexander's secrets and could bring Alexander's tentatively held together reality crashing down.

Dasha:

Tatiana's older sister, Dasha, is the polar opposite of Tatiana. She is dark while Tatiana is fair, Tatiana is shy and reserved while Dasha is outgoing and speaks her mind. I also imagine Dasha to be beautiful in her own way. To me, Eva Green fits the bill perfectly, she's dark and beautiful and has an exotic sense to her.

Framing Friday

2009-12-11T04:28:00.000-08:00

So, I was in my local Waterstones (book shop) this morning when I caught a glimpse of a book cover which was so hauntingly beautiful. I toddled over to this book and as it would happen the synopsis on the back cover did nothing to interest me so I didn't buy it but it did get me thinking about book covers which are so artistic that I wish I could take them off, frame them and hang them on my wall - that if I didn't so strongly object to defacing a book - anyway I've decided to do this weekly thing where I post a book with a cover that I want to frame and hang - hence Framing Friday. Feel free to join in if you want just leave a comment and a link to your blog (if you have one) so that I can check out what book covers you would put on your wall....

My pick for this week is the cover to Fallen by Lauren Kate I just absolutely love this cover, it's so gorgeous. The dark colours, the profile of the girl with her face in her hands, the ominious forest trees in the background which hint at something sinister.

What I'm reading right now....

2009-12-10T14:16:00.000-08:00

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

Synopsis: All Remy has to remember her father by is a song. 'This Lullaby', with the memorable line, 'I will let you down'. Having seen her mother go through four failed marriages, she's pretty sure that's what most men do. So she's determined to keep the men in her life at arms' length.

But when Dexter comes crashing into her world. He's everything she hates: messy, disorganised, impulsive and worst of all, a musician like her father. So why is it suddenly so hard for her to stick to her own rules?

I picked up this book when I was scouring the shelves of the book shop today it sounds quite intriguing. I'm only a few pages into it but it seems interesting, Remy is in her late teens rather than being the standard sixteen or seventeen, she's left high school, is cynical and damaged and has lost her faith in men. I'm interested in how this story is going to develop and what Dexter is going to be like....

On My Wishlist

2009-12-09T08:59:00.000-08:00

On My Wishlist is a weekly meme hosted by book chick city at www.bookchickcity.com whose blog I absolutely love. Anyway, On My Wishlist is where we can post our list of books which are on the list to be read, wishing we owned....books we covet.

First on my wishlist is Immortal by Gillian Shields.

Wyldcliffe Abbey School for Young Ladies, housed in a Gothic mansion on the bleak northern moors, is elite, expensive, and unwelcoming. When Evie Johnson is torn away from her home by the sea to become the newest scholarship student, she is more isolated than she could have dreamed. Strict teachers, snobbish students, and the oppressive atmosphere of Wyldcliffe leave Evie drowning in loneliness.
Evie's only lifeline is Sebastian, a rebellious, mocking, dangerously attractive young man she meets by chance. As Evie's feelings for Sebastian grow with each secret meeting, she starts to fear that he is hiding something about his past. And she is haunted by glimpses of a strange, ghostly girl—a girl who is so eerily like Evie, she could be a sister. Evie is slowly drawn into a tangled web of past and present that she cannot control. And as the extraordinary, elemental forces of Wyldcliffe rise up like the mighty sea, Evie is faced with an astounding truth about Sebastian, and her own incredible fate

What draws me to this book is the synopsis and how it sounds eirily like Wuthering Heights, also I love the appeal of a dangerous boy. The cover art also appeals to me with it blue background and pendant.

Next up is Fallen by Lauren Kate: This is a book I've been waiting for for weeks. I've become sort of addicted to the whole angel/human love story....I'm hoping when I finally get my hands on this book it meets all of my expectations and lives up to all the hype...

What if the person you were meant to be with could never be yours? 17-year-old Lucinda falls in love with a gorgeous, intelligent boy, Daniel, at her new school, the grim, foreboding Sword & Cross ...only to find out that Daniel is a fallen angel, and that they have spent lifetimes finding and losing one another as good & evil forces plot to keep them apart. Some angels are destined to fall...

Ooohh and the cover art is just absolutely stunning......dark, ominous, misty background, the profile of a girl whose face we can't make out, the white lettering which stands out against the dark blue colours it all just draws me in, calling me to read it.

Ink Exchange - Melissa Marr

2009-12-04T04:37:00.000-08:00

Synopsis: After suffering a terrible trauma at the hands of her brother's dealer friends, Leslie becomes obsessed with the idea of getting a tattoo -- it's the one thing that will allow her to reclaim her body, renew her self-confidence. And when Rabbit, her local tattoo artist, shows her a secret book of his own designs, she finds one of them irresistible. Soon, her back is adorned with a pair of mysterious eyes, framed by black wings. Leslie feels good -- more than good. Nothing bad can touch her. But what she doesn't know is that her new tattoo binds her tightly to the faery whose symbol she chose: Irial, the exquisitely dangerous king of the Dark Court!

I had read many reviews for this book on the web and had high expectations of it, but unfortunately I personally didn't find it be all it was cracked up to be. Leslie is a damaged, fractured girl who is portrayed as someone who wants to find something to heal her, who doesn't want to be under anyone's control. The tattoo she gets puts her under Irial's control which makes her just as much a victim as her brother's friends did.

I really wanted to like this book, I really did, I liked the concept but I just didn't like the way it took a damaged character and made her even more damaged, took away her right to choose even more. I wished the relationship between Leslie and Niall would have been explored a little more as she was attracted to him even before the tattoo and he was drawn to her even though he was hazardous to mortals. Personally, I found Niall more alluring than Irial, Niall knew how dangerous he was or could be, how bad he once was and struggled as best he could to be good.

The one thing that I did absolutely love about this book was the cover art. The purple tones reflect the colour of tattooing ink. The girl with her back to us looking slightly over her shoulder with the tattoo across her shoulders and the feathered wings coming out of the tattoo and curling up.

Evermore - Alyson Noel

2009-11-27T09:36:00.000-08:00

Since a horrible accident claimed the lives of her family, Ever can see auras, hear people's thoughts, and know a person's entire life story by touch. Going out of her way to avoid human contact and suppress her abilities has branded her as a freak at her new high school—but everything changes when she meets Damen.

Damen Auguste is gorgeous, exotic and wealthy. He's the only one who can silence the noise and random energy in her head—wielding a magic so intense, it's as though he can see straight into her soul. As Ever is drawn deeper into his enticing world of secrets and mystery, she's left with more questions than answers. She has no idea just who he really is—or what he is. The only thing she knows to be true is she's falling deeply and helplessly in love with him.

Once upon a time Ever was your stereotypical teenage girl, she was blonde, popular, beautiful and a cheerleader. But when her father swerved to miss a deer and the ensuing car crash killed her who family all that changed. In that accident Ever straddled the line between life and death until something pulled her back to life. After that moment she's developed the ability to hear the thoughts of those around her. Nothing silences the sound of the voices of the people's thoughts until the mysterious Damen shows up in one of her classes. Damen is mysterious, drop dead gorgeous and one touch from him quiets all the noise in Ever's head.

Ever, now just a shell of her former self, is reclusive, anti-social and an outcast blames herself for the death of her family and has a major case of survivor's guilt. She wants nothing more than to join her family on the other side adding to the yearning for her family is her regular visitations from her dead younger sister, Riley, who wants to live out her teenage years vicariously through Ever.

I really loved this book - I read it in one day. The characters were so well rounded and described to perfection, I could picture them perfectly. There were moments when I welled up with tears and moments which caused me to giggle. It was so easy to relate to Ever and feel every emotion she was going through, feel the gut wrenching heartache of being the sole survivor of a devastating car accident, the mixed emotion and indecision about Damen - this book was just so completely beautifully written, I will be quickly going back for another read of this one.

Hush, hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

2009-11-20T13:31:00.000-08:00

Synopsis: A sacred oath, a fallen angel, a forbidden love...This darkly romantic story features our heroine, Nora Grey, a seemingly normal teenage girl with her own shadowy connection to the Nephilim, and super-alluring bad boy, Patch, now her deskmate in biology class. Together they find themselves at the centre of a centuries-old feud between a fallen angel and a Nephilim...Forced to sit next to Patch in science class, Nora attempts to resist his flirting, though gradually falls for him against her better judgment. Meanwhile creepy things are going on with a mysterious stalker following her car, breaking into her house and attacking her best friend, Vi. Nora suspects Patch, but there are other suspects too - not least a new boy who has transferred from a different college after being wrongly accused of murdering his girlfriend. And he seems to have taken a shine to Nora...Love certainly is dangerous...and someone is going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice for it.

If I hadn't read the synopsis or other various online reviews of Hush,hush, I wouldn't have clock on at the start of the book that Patch was a fallen angel. He seemed cocky, arrogant and there was a hint of danger to him but he didn't appear to be bad guy to me. I did feel empathy with Nora as she felt on edge around him and something about him unnerved him but I also found her to be slightly neurotic and paranoid but in the end her instincts were correct. I noticed that while half the time the trouble Nora found herself in was because of Patch but the other half of the time when trouble found her or she was in trouble because of her friends; Patch was the one who came to her rescue and even when his intention was to hurt her he couldn't seem to stop saving her. He was just as drawn to her as she was to him.

I found the character of Patch to be quite irresistible; he was torn between being good and doing evil deeds to serve his own purpose. I think deep down to his core he is actually good but he just wanted something so badly that he was willing to do anything possible to get it. I enjoyed the whole cat and mouse relationship Patch and Nora had and found it entertaining how skirmish she was around him and how she was constantly ignoring the attraction she felt towards him. I think that's what made the book so alluring - that and the fact that Patch also felt a pull towards her and was conflicted between the two parts of himself.

What I'm reading right now

2009-11-20T13:20:00.000-08:00

Here's the thing: I am a book addict, I have a serious problem, I can't walk past a book shop without going in. The books call to me, they whisper to me, flirt with me, wink at me and seduce me. This week I wandered into the lovely bookshop in the town I live in, it comes complete with three floors and a coffee shop, anyway, I toddled into the shop with a list of books I wanted; turned out they didn't have half the books on my list and I ended coming out with the list being twice as long. So, here's what I did pick up; Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris. It's part of the Sookie Stackhouse series - what the True Blood television series is based on. I've watched the tv show because it stars Anna Paquin - a fellow New Zealander, so it's all about patriotic loyalty. So I thought I'd give one of the books a shot....I'll let you know how it goes.

Air Kisses - Zoe Foster

2009-11-19T01:42:00.000-08:00

When I still lived in New Zealand the Austrailian version of Cosmopolitan Magazine was my version of a bible, I particularily enjoyed the articles by beauty editor Zoe Foster so when I read on the net that she had written a novel I just knew I had to read it. To be honest it was slightly difficult for me to get my hands on a copy, I scoured the net, searched the shelves at the book shop meticulously and finally found a copy on ebay. There may have been a squeal of delight when I saw it on ebay but anyway I purchased it and waited in eager anticipation for it to come all wrapped and brand new through my mail slot.

Here's what the back cover says: Is love really more important than lip gloss? Hannah Atkins - the girl most likely to be sporting streaky fake tan and a wobbly trail of liquid eyeliner - has bluffed her way into the position of beauty editor at Gloss magazine. Just as she's carving a path into the gorgeous world of guerrilla air kisses, she reads about her boyfriend and another girl in the gossip pages of the local newspaper. Then she gets dumped. By text.

Vowing to claw back some dignity and make her ex regret what he's done, Hannah adopts some hard core rules - look fabulous, steer clear of unsuitable men. But as her resolution starts to slip away, she finds herself having to decide on more important things than the perfect mascara....

My preconceived notion of what this book would be like was that there would be a love interest come into Hannah's life, heal her broken heart and prove to her that love still exists and that her ex is a plonker. This did not happen. The story is focused on Hannah and her sorting her life out for her and finding ways to be happy that doesn't revolve around a man. It's about her finding where she fits in at her new job, carving her own little place in the world and discovering who she is for herself. I found this to be a refreshing approach (though I still secretly hoped for a hunky man to sweep Hannah off her feet) as so many novels have romances and have the love interest as the defining point in the heroine's life. At the start Hannah is a girl who is fumbling about in a job she's not sure she deserves or can do and has a boyfriend she discovers has been cheating on her, as book progresses we see her gain confidence within herself and realise that yes she can actually do the job and do it well.

Another little quirky point of difference which makes Air Kisses stand out is each chapter is headed up with a beauty tip which coincides with the title of the chapter and the theme running through it.

Overall, even though I was slightly hoping for a bit of a romance, I really enjoyed this book, it was quirky, sweet, intelligence and I really found myself rooting for Hannah and feeling all the emotions she rode on her own personal emotional roller coaster.

What I'm reading right now.....

2009-11-12T07:14:00.000-08:00

At the moment I have about three books on the go....

First is Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick and let me just say that I can see what all the hype is about. I think I'm a little bit in love with Patch. He's a great bad boy/rebel without a cause character but at the same time is as sweet as can be. I imagine him to be very similar to the character of Jess from Gilmore Girls just a bit more defined.

The second book I'm reading is The Anarchist's Angel by Gareth Thompson. I haven't got very far into this book yet so I don't really know the characters well enough to form an opinion but the premise is interesting, here's what the back cover says: Samson Ashburner always felt like an outsider - even before the farm accident that left his face scarred and confidence shattered. With taunts of local children and his mother ringing in his ears, samson malingers like a dark cloud over the Cumbrian landscape. His only refuge is an ancient charcoal-burning hut in the nearby woods. It is here that he first encounters Angel Obscura, a beautiful gypsy girl who teaches Samson that not everybody takes him at face value. But Angel may be hiding scars of her own and Samson is drawn into a web of deceit and shady dealings with an explosive outcome.

The third book I'm reading is by Zoe Foster who was the beauty editor for the Australian Cosmopolitan magazine, Air Kisses is her debut novel and it's light and girly and hilarious.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

2009-11-10T09:01:00.000-08:00

Synopsis: For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf--her wolf--is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.
Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

While I am a fan of the Twilight Saga (I have a secret, guilty infatuation with Edward) there was just something that made me click more with Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater than the Twilight books. Honestly, I find Bella to be self-depricating and to have a bit of a complex. While in Twilight the relationship between Bella and Edward is slightly unbalanced in my opinion, Bella holds Edward on a pedalstool and views him through rose coloured glasses, the relationship between Grace and Sam is more balanced; this could be because the book jumps between Grace's point of view and Sam's point of view but I think this gives us a more rounded picture of the story and a clearer view of each of the character's and the world they live in rather than just seeing it from a single character's perspective.

Grace knows what Sam is, accepts it, sees all his flaws and loves him inspite of it not because of it. Sam on the otherhand is full of insecurites about what he is and at the same time sees through Grace's bravado and sees her insecurites (sometimes ones she isn't even aware of herself), they lean on each other and support each other, it's a nicely balanced, equal relationship where they both give and take in equal measures.

While Shiver is based in the realm of the supernatural the book is more about the relationship between the two main characters (one of whom just happens to be a warewolf) which is what endeared me to the book it puts the character development and the romance before the supernatural.

The Wild Party by Joseph Moncure March

2009-11-08T13:32:00.000-08:00

This book is really a really long poem which was written in 1926 but wasn't published until 1928 because it was deemed too saucy. It was also a banned book in Boston. It was later published in 1968 but was a censored version until 1994 when it was re-published (again) but this time as the original with illustrations by Art Spiegelman - which is the one I read.

In a nut shell it is about a night of debauchery - a night in the life of Queenie and her man Burrs. It starts with a lover's quarrell between the two which then turns into a house party with the pre-requiste alcohol, lust, music and sex. Fights break out, Queenie indulges in a smutty little affair designed to get back at Burrs for calling her a slut, she inevitably gets caught in a moment of passion and somewhere along the way a murder is committed.

Brilliantly written, it is a poem written in narrative form or rather a novel written in the form of poetry - either way it is exquisite. The rhythm of the rhyming is almost like that found in a nursey rhyme but at the same time it has a kind of sensual flow to it. The lines are reduced to merely one word in parts to speed up the rhythm and to highlight the action.
My favourite passage is:

Some love is fire: some love is rust:
But the fiercest, cleanest love is lust.
And their lust was tremendous. It had the feel
Of hammers clanging; and stone; and steel

But the artwork is what really did it for me, black and white, completely devoid of colour and in an film noir style to reflect the period and tone and style of the poem, it adds an extra vibrancy and visual effect to the original poem.

One-hit wonder - Lisa Jewell

2009-11-07T08:29:00.000-08:00

Synopsis: Bee Bearhorn had a number-one-hit single in 1985 and was never heard of again. Fifteen years later she is found dead and nobody seems to care. Ana Wills has always daydreamed about the exotic half-sister she hasn't seen for years. When she comes to London to clear her flat, Ana begins to unravel Bee's life: her missing cat, her secret country cottage and her mysterious weekends away. So, instead of going back to Devon, Ana tracks down Bee's closest friends, mad Lol and strong, silent Flint and together they set out to discover exactly what happened to Bee.

This was a book which was given to me by one of the customers at the pub I work at and I decided to read it because I wanted something light and fluffy. Chick-lit. And this book had had good comments and feedback.

To me the characters seemed quite cliched: the ex-pop star who met a tragic end and was on paper - a bitch but was actually an incredibly nice person, the sister who didn't realise just how beautiful she really is and all it took to discover this was a nifty makeover. Then there was the gorgeous, strong silent man-whore who upon meeting the sister saw the error of his ways.

While I found the writing quite witty for the most part, I found myself skimming through pages, it just didn't seem to hold my attention. I expected the secret and mystery surrounding Bee's death to be an exciting scandal but it was more a case of it being exactly what it appeared to be. The concept was an intriguing one to me; a mystery about a one hit wonder but unfortunately the book just didn't do it for me.

The Pact - Jodi Picoult

2009-11-03T15:33:00.000-08:00

Synopsis: The Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other for eighteen years. They have shared everything. Chris and Emily are joined at the hip so it's no surprise to anyone when their close bond becomes a romance - after all it's what their parents have been hoping for. But everything is shattered when a midnight call comes from the hospital, Emily is seventeen and dead from a gunshot wound which Chris is responsible. Chris says the plan was for them both to die - it was a suicide pact, he says the second bullet was meant for him.

The Pact is intricately written and is ultimately the story of how far you'd be willing to go for the love of your life. It begs the question: Would you kill for them? Or rather, would you kill them if they asked you to? At the same time it is also the story of how far a parent would go to protect their child.

Throughout the book I got a sense of Chris being more in love with Emily than she was with him, sure she loved him but even she wasn't sure it was the same kind of love. From her side I felt a sense or need to please everyone and to live up to this lifelong expectation. I found myself to be sympathetic towards Chris, he loved Emily and would do just about anything for her but perhaps wasn't willing to die for her and his sense of guilt throughout the book is overwhelming.

Jodi Picoult's books are always very enlightening - they tackle moral and legal issues which are not always so black and white which I find very realistic because in life there are shades of grey and Jodi Picoult manages to portray all angles.

In The Pact, she portrays the blurred perception of what reasonable doubt really is and how quickly love can change and turn into something else, how there really is a fine line between love and hate. I think in The Pact it is really up to the individual reader to decide if Chris is guilty of murder or not, it is a personal opinion because of the way it has been written which is what I found intriguing and endearing about the book and why it is an absolutely wonderful read, one of my new favourites.

Before I Die - Jenny Downham

2009-11-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

Tessa is a sixteen year old girl who has been fighting off cancer for the past four years and now the end is nigh, there is nothing more they can do for her. Apparently the world is done with her...but she's not done with the world. There's still so much she wants to do. She wants her parent's back together, she wishes to be famous...but most of all she yearns for someone to love.

This is a unique book, narrated by Tessa, not yet a ghost but not completely living shut up in the solitude of her room scrawling her list on her wall. Jenny Downham takes the reader through the stages of grief through not only Tessa who grieves for the life she'll never have but also through the other characters who have taken the journey of terminal illness with Tessa but who can not hold her hand and accompany her into the next world. There's her heartbroken, loving father who is all about the denial, he needs to believe their is still hope, he needs to believe that he can save his baby girl. There's Cal, Tessa's little brother who appears flippant about the fact his older sister is dying but deep down can't deal with the reality of Tessa not existing. There's a sweet boy next door, Adam who when he first meets Tessa is ignorant of her illness and looks at her as if she is just an ordinary girl, not a girl who could very well collapse at any moment. As the story progresses, Adam gives her the gift she's so desperately been wanting: love. Zoey, Tessa's best friend goes through highs and lows of cheerfully helping Tessa achieve her list's goals and then being angry with her for being absorbed with her own problems. Tessa herself goes through periods of not wanting pity, being violently angry, rebelling and self-pity.

I found Tessa's story to be poignantly realistic, the emotions heartbreaking. I couldn't stop crying throughout this book, there is no moments of contrieved statements by Tessa about accepting her fate it is just beautifully honest about a life cut short too soon.

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

2009-11-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

Synopsis: Clare and Henry met when Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Henry suffers from a rare condition where his genetic clock periodically resets and he finds himself pulled suddenly into his past or future.

I had mixed feelings about this book, I'd heard all the hype about both the book and the recently released movie. At times I found certain parts difficult to follow, when in some chapters there are two Henry's - one present day, one from the future or past it is at times difficult to dissern which Henry is speaking or which one Clare is talking to.

Throughout the book, Henry is a tortured soul while for most of the book Clare is skipping happily along in life with versions of Henry and when we get to the point where Clare is sick of all the time travel and being alone while her husband keeps disappearing against his will I found it difficult to feel sympathy towards her as she had sought out the present day Henry, the Henry who at that time didn't know her yet, she could have walked away and never chosen to be with him. I felt perhaps she'd chosen her own fate and swayed more towards feeling sympathy for Henry, who had tried to steer her away from seeking him out. In one particular chapter where Henry is both twenty-eight and thirty three and Clare is twenty, Clare realises that while she met a version of Henry when she was six and has her whole life to fall in love with him, the twenty eight year old version of Henry has only just met her...."I didn't know you existed. I was unhappily dating Ingrid. I met you. I broke up with Ingrid. I mean infidelity isn't retroactive, you know?...very few people meet their soulmates at age six...." "...I see that he (Henry) doesn't recognize anything...the knife of realization sinks in deeper: all the little tokens and souvenirs in this museum of our past are as love letters to an illiterate."

I'm not usually a fan of time travel stories particularly those involving romances, purely because scenes involving an adult interacting with the child version of their love tend to come off as me as being slightly creepy but Audrey Niffenegger manages to pull it off in a way which is sweet and tender almost as if during Clare's early years Henry is an imaginary friend. Henry is portrayed as maintaining a certain amount of distance until Clare comes of age while at the same time having a sweet relationship with the child version of Clare. Once we are taken to the point in time when Clare and Henry finally meet up in the same time period, Henry is this struggling, damaged man searching for something he doesn't quite recognise until Clare comes along and the pieces suddenly seem to come together and fit perfectly.

For me, this was a difficult book to delve into because of me preconcieved notions about science fiction but once I got into it I found it to be charming, sweet, endearing and at it's very core a story about a couple very much in love and the time travel was just something that couldn't be helped. I would definately recommend this book to anyone and am looking forward to delving into Niffenegger's new book.

The Other Half Lives - Sophie Hannah

2009-10-27T16:01:00.000-07:00

What would you do if your boyfriend told you he'd killed someone? That he'd killed a woman years ago? This is the premise for Sophie Hannah's The Other Half Lives. Ruth Bussey knows the meaning of heartache and pain, she's felt the kind that rips a person apart and nearly destroys you. She's left everything she's ever known, relocated and met and fallen in love with a man: Aidan Seed, a man whose love she feels she doesn't deserve. Aiden, haunted by a past he's never quite able to escape confides in Ruth telling her of a woman he killed years ago: Mary Trelease, the name of a woman Ruth knows to be very much alive.

What struck me about The Other Half Lives is the way it jumps perspective from each of the main characters. Each of the characters has a secret buried within their past and are each so emotionally damaged and stunted by these secrets that they now inform and define their characters. Each of the characters and their secrets are intricately intertwined with each other that as the plot unfolds each chapter is like pieces of a puzzle coming together and finding its place.

The plot itself is full of deception and misdirection so that the path the reader thinks it is on is actually being weaved in the opposite direction, also just when the reader thinks they have it all figured it out a hurdle is thrown in.

The plot in this story is mainly pushed along by the female leads. When we first meet Ruth Bussey is a woman about to tell a story so crazy that it couldn't possibly have been imagined: her boyfriend is convinced he killed a woman - a woman who is very much alive and kicking. As the story moves along Ruth desperately tries to convince the police of Aidan's sanity and at the same time convince Aidan of his innocence - a task not easily done. Charlotte (Charlie) is a policewoman who after a terribly bad and trumatic judgement call has been demoted and is now pushing paper. Charlie is also newly engaged to a detective with whom her relationship lacks intimate contact and with whom everyone is convinced she is making a mistake marrying.

What I thought: I've never really been one for thrillers, I've always found them heavy on the action and violence and found it hard to identify with the characters but The Other Half Lives was a pleasant surprise. It is intelligently written with a plot that moves along at an exciting pace and kept me engaged and contained well rounded (if not a slightly damaged) characters which were identifiable but which I also found myself caring about and rooting for. There were moments of sweetness and tenderness between the characters, perfectly portrayed moment of awkwardness and moments that sent a shiver of fear down my spine. The writing was witty which at times took out the bite of some of the more fearsome moments. Overall a book I would highly recommend. I would give it five out of five stars.

Shakespeare, William

2009-10-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

Recently I read a book written by Bill Bryson about William Shakespeare. I am naturally a fan of Shakespeare in fact there may have been a small amount of squealing when I got a confirmation email about a tour I'd planned to Shakespeare country (but that's another post altogether). My favourite sonnet by the Barb would be Shall I compare thee...while my favourite play is Romeo and Juliet. I didn't always favour Shakespeare's tragedy of the two star-crossed lovers. When I read it for an English class at high school I did not have favourable opinions about it, while the writing is superb I was of the opinion that Romeo was fickle and Juliet was young and stupid.

When I sat down to read Bryson's biography I asked myself a question: How much do I really know about William Shakespeare? I know the plays and some of the sonnets, I know he was from Stratford-upon-Avon. I know he was married to Anne Hathaway. After that I couldn't come up with anything else. So, I was expecting Bryson's biography to unveil some new information or exciting tidbit but to my disappointment it was mainly made up of assumptions mixed in with the few legitamate facts the world actually have. This book while a slight disappoint in terms of new information is wittily written. Perhaps Shakespeare is going to remain somewhat of a mystery but that doesn't deter from the brilliance of what he was: one of the greatest writers of all time.

The Bronze horseman - Paullina Simons

2009-10-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

This is one of my all time favourite books. My copy of it is worn with deep creases etched into the spine and the pages dog earred, the pages which were once pure white are now coloured. In my opinion, this is a modern day Romeo and Juliet story - except possibly more relatible - it contains the same restrained passion, the love that can never be.

Set in World War Two Russia The Bronze Horseman tells the story of Tatiana Metanova, a seventeen year old girl who meets the handsome soldier Alexander on the first day of war. There is an attraction between them which is ignited from their first meeting. There's just one problem: Alexander is already entangled with Tatiana's older sister Dasha. Mix in Dimitri, Alexander's weasely best friend who sets his sights on Tatiana. Add to this the violence of the waging war and their love seems impossible.

Their relationship is an intense push/pull situation with Alexander trying to do the right thing and the noble thing and protect Tatiana and her family and Tatiana's unwavering loyalty to Dasha. Add to their already strained relationship the secret Alexander is harbouring; a secret he's endeavoured to share with Tatiana (and Dimitri, who uses it as blackmail material). It's hard enough to keep romance alive without the added burden of just trying to survive, to just stay alive.

Paullina Simons has written a story which is just the right mix of historical fact and description, drama, action and romance. The prose is so well written and the descriptions are so clear and rich that it seems as though you are right there in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) with Tatiana and Alexander, that you are right there witnessing their every argument, every rushed, secret kiss, their hushed discussions and their every sly look and touch.

The Ambulance Chaser by Richard Beasley

2009-10-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Ambulance Chaser is a story about being at the lowest point in life but finding a cause worth fighting for. Which I’m sure we can all relate to.

Lawyer Christopher Blake has hit rock bottom. He was recently dis-barred and declared bankrupt. He has no money, no driver’s license, is a sometimes drunk and uses sarcasm and dry humour as a defense mechanism to get through everyday life. And just when he thinks things can’t get any worse, his girlfriend walks out on him.

In a bid to keep some connection to his old life, Chris continues to work at a legal centre giving advice to everyone from an illegal immigrant to a man who wants to sue a cat.

It is at the legal centre where Chris meets the latest love of his life, Gabrielle Sheperd, who unfortunately for Chris, is gay.

Even though Chris’ motto in life is that “Politicians and insurance companies can not be trusted”, he takes a job at South Pacific Group insurance. Chris soon discovers a terrifying trend within the insurance company, a trend of injured plaintiffs dying at an unusual and alarming rate.

With his motto in mind and his suspicions about what is really happening, Chirs enlists Gabrielle to help him start his own investigation into the deaths.

The Ambulance Chaser is a fast paced book and though at first glance the story can appear to be quite depressing and full of legal jargon, it is a surprisingly funny, witty story narrated by a man who while dis-barred and bankrupt is actually an honest lawyer trying to put his life back together.

Rubdown - Leigh Redhead

2009-10-27T07:51:00.000-07:00

With ‘Rubdown’, author Leigh Redhead gives the reader a uniquely thrilling crime novel with something for everyone; sex, drugs, car chases and shoot outs, all of which are connected to an intelligent and headstrong leading lady, who just happens to have once been a stripper.

Simone Kirsch, stripper turned private investigator has an uncanny ability of getting entangled with all the wrong people and attracting trouble. Simone has made a deal with her Private investigator boss that she will go straight, which means no stripping, no sex, drugs, sex industry behaviour, danger and above all no trouble of any kind. But when she is asked to investigate sex worker, Tamara Wade’s supposed suicide and tangles with the brothel’s sleazy owner, her no danger, no trouble policy goes flying out the window especially when she meets someone who will go to any lengths necessary to stop her investigation, even if it means killing her.

To complete the tangled web she weaves, Simone is caught up in an intriguing love quadrangle with three police officers, two of whom are attracted to her and want to keep her safe and one who also happens to be a female.

Although Rubdown is a stand alone book, in parts in can be slightly confusing and reading Leigh Redhead’s first book, ‘Peepshow’ would clear up any confusion. Some readers may find the actual cover of the book a bit off putting but once past the front cover, the book reveals itself as an intriguing, funny and thrilling read which keeps the reader engaged right up until the last page.

Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

2009-10-27T07:50:00.000-07:00

It’s the usual scenario. Boy meets girl. Boy falls for girl. Boy can’t possibly have girl. Bella Swan moves to Forks, Washington to live with a father who in the last few years has only seen for two or so weeks in the year. Edward Cullen is the quiet brooding, intimidating, pale skinned, beautiful boy who seemingly takes an instant dislike to Bella. And lets not forget the small fact that he’s a vampire. A vampire who doesn’t snack on humans.

Bella, seventeen, never expected to like Forks, in fact she was determined to hate it. It was the opposite of Pheonix, a place she loved. It rained frequently and the town was under a constant sky of cloud. Eventually, vampire and human strike up an unlikely friendship, with Bella forming both a bond and an attraction to the young vampire posing as a human. Edward and his surrogate family of vampires manage to hide their true identity from Bella and the town they’ve called home for the past two years…that is until Bella, while on a beach trip with friends comes across a boy who explains to her the local legend of ‘the cold ones’, a group of vampires or ‘blood drinkers’ who have sworn off human blood and hunt only animals. Armed with the legend and a little book research, Bella comes to the conclusion that Edward is in fact one of those vampires. This fact would scare some people but for Bella, it means nothing. It changes nothing. She’s already in love with Edward, it’s too late to go back now.

For Edward, Bella’s lack of fear is frustrating but at the same time it delights him as well. Bella is the first person he’s loved since he was turned into a vampire at the end of the first world war. Though he loves her, being so close to her is his own type of torture. He can never get too close, he has to be so careful, treat he like the delicate human she is because one wrong move could harm her. Her scent and her blood is also almost too tempting for Edward to resist.
The love story between Edward and Bella has themes of Romeo and Juliet weaving through it. It’s a doomed love story, two people who should be natural enemies yet still want each other but may never be able to have each other. It’s also a push pull type romance with Edward desperately trying to do the right thing and keep Bella away from him but being so drawn to her that he just can’t stay away from her.

Twilight is written in the first person, narrated by Bellas, so every piece of information the reader receives is from Bella’s point of view. Bella’s view of Edward is very romanticized, we see him as she sees him, this beautiful, dangerous hero. The character of Bella is beautifully and realistically written from her shy, clumsiness to her sarcastic inner thoughts. The vampire mythology is uniquely written, destroying the old predictable cliches we are usually given.
Beautifully written, touching and compelling and at times heartbreakingly sad, Twilight is a sweet story of star-crossed love which can be read time and time again and never gets old.

Size 12 is not Fat - Meg Cabot

2009-10-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

After To Kill a Mockingbird, I wanted to read something a bit lighter. As a teen I had read Meg Cabot’s Mediator series and had really enjoyed her style of writing even though I’m not a huge fan of the supernatural.

Heather Wells was a teen pop sensation with everything to lose. And then she did lose it. She’s hit rock bottom, sick of singing songs written by others, her record label dumps her. Her fiance cheats on her. Heather ends up living in her fiance’s brother’s (Cooper) attic apartment, finds a job in a New York college dorm and finally thinks her life is turning around. Until….girls start turning up dead at the bottom of elevator shafts. Apparently, elevator surfing is a favourite past time for college students. The official line is that these girl’s deaths are accidents…tragic…but still accidents. Except Heather has other ideas. She knows teenage girls…she was a teenage girl and teenage girls don’t elevator surf, especially girls afraid of heights. Heather decides there’s something suspicious about these deaths and makes it her mission to get to the bottom of them….enlisting a reluctant Cooper’s help, Cooper who just happens to be a private detective. Little does Heather know that not only is she fighting for justice for these girls but also for her life.

Written in the first person from Heather’s perspective, Size 12 is not Fat, is a light - if not at times fluffy - read about a girl who is trying to piece her destroyed life back together, find what other talents she has besides singing and trying to find her place in the world. There is a fairytale, sweet quality about Meg Cabot’s writing which makes it a delightful read - perhaps not a piece of literary genius but still an enchanting tale worth a look.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

2009-10-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

There are two major issues in this world which I cannot stand. Number One: Sexism. You’d better not tell me I can’t do something and do it well just because I lack a penis. And it is not acceptable for anyone to say or imply that because of that lack of a penis I am inferior in any way. Yes, I admit because I lack that particular appendage there are certain things I can’t do: produce sperm or pee standing up. But at the same time just because I have ovaries and can push a human being through a very small part of my body does not make me superior to any man. We are equal (or at least we should be), we can both do some pretty, equally amazing things. That’s enough for that particular rant - time to move on to the next stage of my rant.
I’m on holiday from work at the moment and I’ve been spending quality time having a Grey’s Anatomy marathon. I’m up to season four. I’ve just watched the episode in which Dr. Bailey, Christina and George must treat a white supremist with a huge swastika tattooed on his stomach. The storyline was beautifully portrayed; with Christina quitely stating her stepfathers parents were killed in auschwitz and Dr. Bailey telling her that they were going to rise above it and be the better people. They were going to treat this man because if they didn’t it would make them no better than he was. Now, me, I would be inclined to let him die and rot in the firey pits of hell - but that’s just me. Racism. Can’t stand it. Most importantly, I don’t understand it.

I don’t understand how anyone can hate another person based on the colour of that person’s skin or think that a person is inferior because of the way they look. We’re all the same on the inside. At least that’s what I was raised to believe: I am no better nor any lesser than anyone else based on skin colour. Which leads me to the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Firstly, I knew nothing about this book. Zilch. Zero. Zippo. So, I googled it. And I found out that Harper Lee is a woman, is still alive and was best friend’s with Truman Capote who wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s - all of which make her incredibly cool in my eyes.

Anyway, To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of a man, a lawyer, who is defending a black man accused of raping a white girl. The book is set in the 1930s and is told in the first person by the lawyer’s six year old daughter. I thought this was an interesting way to tell an incredibly, sad, intriguing story of society in this time, but then sometimes the truth can only be seen through the eyes of children: through the eyes of the innocent. Portraying a time in history when racial discrimination was still at a peak, the book shows how Scout (the daughter) and her brother are, at times picked on because of their father’s defence of the man, and also their perceptions of what they believe the situation to be. One part of the book that really stood out for me was when one of Scout’s teachers was teaching about Hitler and the persecutions of Jewish people and was stressing the point of how wrong this is and then later Scout overhears this teacher saying that black people should remain segregated and in general just being discriminatory. Scout, in her innocence, tells her father that she doesn’t believe this is right.

All in all I enjoyed this book, although it did take awhile to get into and for it to get to the part of the actual crime and to explain it to the reader, but over all it was an intelligently written exploration of the way we, as humans treat each other.

The Lucky One - Nicholas Sparks

2009-10-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks tells the story of Logan Thibault an ex-marine returned from serving in Iraq. Thibault is embarking on a walk from Colorado with only the company of his faithful German Shepard. He’s searching for the woman in the photograph he found in Iraq, the photograph he’s sure kept him alive while serving. The photograph he considers his lucky charm. He does indeed find the girl. They embark on a tentative - and at times slightly lacking in trust relationship. It’s a kind of love at first sight story with just a touch of harmless stalker voyeurism thrown in for good measure but even so it’s a tender, sweet love story.

I’ve read quite a few of Nicholas Sparks novels and they are, if I’m honest my guilty pleasure. They are, to me, the literary version of a chick flick. The model for the majority of Sparks’ novels are basically the same: tortured, damaged boy meets girl, falls for girl, manages to royally mess things up, loses girl, gets girl back. They’re great for a hopeless romantic like myself. But with in saying that I felt that the characters in The Lucky One were quite one deminsional and predictible: there’s the tortured, quiet, handsome, slightly dangerous looking, chivalrous solider, the beautifully jaded single mother with the ever so slightly perverted physcho ex. But despite all of this, I found this to be a light fluffy, romantic (if not unrealistic) read that called to the hopeless romantic in me.

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

2009-10-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

I’ve been trying to convince myself to read this book for a while now. I’d walk into a book shop and hold it in my hands, flip through the pages. I’d heard so many rave reviews about it but I was still hesitant. It was the subject matter that made me cautious - see the story is told by a 14 year old girl, who in 1973 is raped, murdered and dismembered by one of her neighbours. Once her spirit leaves her body she narrates the story from heaven, watching as her family fumble apart trying to get on with their lives. I can sit through cheesy horror movies with blood and guts hanging out everywhere and not be overly fazed but rape and murder terrifies me. It scares me like nothing else and rape of a child? I can’t cope with that. So, hence when I finally made the decision that I was going to buy that book and stood staring at it, I decided I’d read the first chapter right there and then in my local Waterstones. I put that book right back on that shelf. The first chapter was wonderfully written and I have a very good imagination. Those two combined and I knew every feeling Susie Salmon had as her neighbor, George Harvey violated her, as she pleaded for her life and he finally stole it from her. I walked away from the book.

A few weeks later someone from the pub I work in gave me a book as a gift. Guess which book it was: The Lovely Bones. I couldn’t say no to a gift of a book. I took it home and put it on the bookshelf which I’d recently bought and from there it stared at me, telling me to read it. I finally did. I couldn’t have a book on my shelf which had never been read, it wasn’t right. I pushed past my fears and delved in and once I got into it, The Lovely Bones was a beautifully written, heartwrenching tale of a girl with so much hope for life only to have that hope ripped away.
Susie Salmon watched from her perch in the gazebo of her own personal heaven as her beloved sister grew into a woman, struggling to break free of the shadow of her dead sister and at the same time honour her sister’s memory by helping her father find Susie’s killer. She watched as her parents grew further and further away from each other, as her father became obsessed with finding her killer, as her baby brother grew into a polite, sweet teenager who, as a child saw her as his imaginary friend.

I would highly recommend this book but would advise anyone looking to start reading it to have a box of tissues handy. This book is heartbreaking, tear inspiring, beautiful and happy all at once - definitely one of my new favourites.

STILL LIFE WITH BOTTLE - WHISKY ACCORDING TO RALPH STEADMAN

2009-10-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

Still life with bottle is a wittily constructed history of Whisky and Scotland, which also endeavors to explain to the reader the reasonings behind why Scotland hates England so much.

Ralph Steadman travelled the length of Scotland visiting distilleries exploring the importance and place of Whisky in Scotland’s heritage. He considers the art of blending and creating a brew (even goes as far as to tell the reader how to achieve the same desired result) and ponders the question and provides a few theories of when and how man first stumbled upon the mere idea of creating a perfectly fermented brew.

His unique take on the art of Whisky making and history makes for an intriguing read and while the prose is wittily and intelligently written it is the illustrations which really bring the book together and make it a real treasure.

Nothing short of beautiful and occasionally graphically gory, anyone could sift through this book and marveling only at the artwork, flick through it and still pick up on the main ideas of the prose. I would have loved a few more days to pore over this book but I had to return it to it’s rightful owner (a customer from the pub I work at let me borrow it). I’d never actually really heard of Ralph Steadman until I was introduced to this book, so I decided to look him up on the internet (oh the joys of the internet) and was intrigued to discover that Ralph Steadman is the man who illustrated one of my favourite childhood books: Alice in Wonderland. Turns out I was a fan and didn’t even know it.

The Secret Life of Bees (the book)

2009-10-27T07:38:00.000-07:00

As I had kind of already predicted, I prefered the book version to the movie. The characters were developed more. The movie had changed around the plot in certain parts which actually made not a whole lot of sense. The book provided a more indepth study of the character and their relationships and more insight into why they were the way they were and their thoughts, dreams and feeling.

The relationship between Lily and Zach was much more developed and intriguingly more complicated than it was portrayed in the movie, there was a deeper friendship, kinship and tenderness than could be portrayed on screen.
Lily’s father was also more of a three dimensional character in the book. He was portrayed as struggling between loving his daughter in his own way and hating her. To him, Lily was a constant representation and reminder of the woman he loved and had hurt him, betrayed him and left him. Lily was also the person who ultimately took away the love of his life forever.
Overall, the book was an inticately woven, character driven, beautifully written, touching story of growing up and overcoming discrimination and accepting who you are and what you may become.

Azincourt - Bernard Cornwell

2009-10-27T07:37:00.000-07:00

When a customer (at the pub) handed me a copy of the faction (fiction based on fact) book, sternly told me to read it, then moved on to tell me it was about Agincourt, I stared at him blankly. Agincourt? What was Agincourt or Azincourt I asked. Turns out it was a battle in a war known as the hundred years war in which two family houses fought it out for the right to be the ruling monarch of France. Agincourt was the battle in which the English was victorious even though they were extremely outnumbered.

It is also the origins from which the two fingered salute comes from. It derives from the gestures of longbowmen fighting in the English army. The French claimed they would cut off the the archer’s shooting fingers once they had won the battle, but the victorious English, at the end of the battle displayed their hands with their fingers still intact as a taunt to the French.
So, with all this new found knewledge, I tentatively started reading. There was a lot of rape, murder and pilage. And that’s just in the first chapter.

When we first meet our hero, archer Nick Hook, he’s plotting murder. It doesn’t quite go as he’s planned and once he’s moved on from that failed attempt, he witnesses the killing of so called heretics and fails to save a young girl from being raped and murdered. This young girl continues to haunt him throughout the story.
Hook does later on manage to save another girl, this time a French nun from being raped and ultimately murdered. This girl turns out to be his penance and his saving grace as well as his love.
While I enjoyed this book and the descriptions of the battles and war were beautifully constructed, I felt that the characters were left underdeveloped and there were situations which were not payed off. But if the reader can look past this, Bernard Cornwell’s Azincourt is an intelligent fiction retelling of the battle of Agincourt.

Leeds Castle

2009-10-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

Leeds castle is a beautiful English castle steeped in history, set on an island surrounded by a body of water, built during the reign of Henry I, William the conqueror’s son, on an island in the River Len, Leeds Castle has an incredible history of being a royal residence, then becoming a private residence which was handed down by inheritance and purchase. Before finally being sold in 1926 to the American heiress, Lady Baillie who after her death left the castle to the Leeds Castle Foundation.

Eleanor of Castile, King Edward I’s queen, bought the castle in 1278 and started the long standing royal ownership of the castle. Eleanor died in 1290 and when Edward married the French half-sister of Phillip IV, Princess Margaret, they spent their honeymoon at the castle and Edward later granted the castle to his new queen, beginning the tradition of the castle being retained by the queens of England after the King’s death.

Henry IV gifted Leeds Castle to his second wife, Joan of Navarre. In 1419, Joan of Navarre was imprisoned, by her step son, Henry V, in Leeds Castle and charged with plotting the King’s death by witchcraft by the ‘most high and horrible means’.
Between 1517 and 1523, Henry VIII ordered major alterations on the castle to turn it into a magnificant royal palace for King Henry and Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. In what is now known as the Catherine of Aragon room, there was once a fire place displaying the royal arms entwined with lovers’ knots.

The Maiden’s Tower which stands seperate from the rest of the castle is a late-tudor structure which replaced and earlier medieval building. Henry VIII’s rebuilding work of the castle included the tower being reconstructed to accommodate the queen’s ladies in waiting. The Maiden’s Tower was where we commenced our tour and also where we had the opportunity to taste test some Henry VIII’s style mead, which is a kind of syrupy, honey flavoured wine.

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