Review - The Man of My Dreams

After the breakup of her parents' marriage, teenage Hannah Gavener is shipped off to live with a Philadelphia aunt. Feeling like the divorce refugee that she is, Hannah struggles through her insecurities, seemingly content to live in the shadow of her hip, gorgeous cousin Fig. Later, in sessions with her college psychiatrist, she begins to cope more directly with her problems, but her intense ambivalence about deep relationships persists. Curtis Sittenfeld's The Man of My Dreams presents a central character whose crises and decisions unfold with the hard logic of life. A fine stand-alone follow-up to the author's debut novel, Prep.



The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld
My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I have been asked by a few people who enjoyed this book, why I gave it 1 star. So this is it:




1. I disliked hated all the characters, they annoyed me, especially the main character's, being inside her head was a very, very painful experience.




2. The main character was also a friggn nympho. All she thought about was getting down and doing the nasty and the opposite sex of course.




3. The plot. Could someone please tell me what it was? Was it just this girls life, because all it seems like is a recap of the main characters life. When we say, "So, your life story?" We don't mean it!




4. The writing, I know some people have praised that the book is beautifully written, we should all applaud the writing. I don't see that, maybe if the writing had been interesting or "beautifully written" I would have enjoyed the book more.




You see! Do not bother! Not a good book at all, if you want to be bored to tears, no it wasn't even that moving, if you want to be generally bored read this. Otherwise just don't! Not worth your time!

Review - The Fallen Omnibus, Vol 1

THE ULTIMATE QUEST FOR REDEMPTION

On his eighteenth birthday, Aaron begins to hear strange voices and is convinced he is going insane. But having moved from foster home to foster home, Aaron doesn't know whom he can trust. He wants to confide in the cute girl from class, but fears she'll confirm he's crazy.

Then a mysterious man begins following Aaron. He knows about Aaron's troubled past and his new powers. And he has a message for Aaron: As the son of a mortal and an angel, Aaron has been chosen to redeem the Fallen.

Aaron tries to dismiss the news and resists his supernatural abilities. But he must accept his newfound heritage — and quickly. For the dark powers are gaining strength, and are hell-bent on destroying him....

The Fallen Omnibus, Vol 1 by Thomas E. Sniegoski

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

1.5 stars... it got rounded to 2, and 1.5 was really generous.

I couldn't finish it. I read the first part and that was about it, really boring! Normally a book does not take much to please me, it needs:

           1. Romance

           2. Action 

           3. Cool back story

This book had all of this but together they were all really crap. I bought the book for $15 and am now really regretting it. The only reason I read it was because I wanted to read it before I watched the movie. But truthfully really not worth it! Don't bother, seriously.

As demonic Fomorii ravage their land, Bec and a band of warrior companions leave their devastated rath to answer a plea for help. An orphaned priestess-in-training, Bec hopes the journey will help her solve the mysteries of her birth. But fighting demons has a steep price...



Bec by Darren Shan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars





Before I give the review let me just start by saying that Darren Shan is one of my all time favourite authors and I am not a huge fan of horror, his writing, characters and plot’s just captivate me and keep me reading. I recommend all of his books. But this has to be one of my favourites in the Demonata series.



Characters: 9/10

I loved all the characters. There were evil ones and good ones; you’d think it would be as simple as that, but no. In most books, it’s black and white. “That guys the evil one, yay, you go stab him you hero! Kill that evil it!” Not here, you know Lord Loss is an evil SOB, yet here we learn he was always an ass, but that’s not the thing, Lord Loss is the one constant in all the books so far. And what can I say; him and his army of demons are just cool. Onto the main characters such as the one telling the story, I love Bec. She is just so awesome. She has to be one of the most badass heroines ever. Even though she is small and looked down upon she does not let others fight her battle. She goes in guns high ready to shoot down every demon out there. Yep, she’s not your average heroine, plus her super cool magic powers are also pretty wicked. Also, I liked the fact that her mind was not centred on the opposite sex or a boy; instead, it was centred around saving the world!



Writing: 8/10

I am a terrible judge at peoples writing, so I’ll just say what I thought of it. It was good. Like most of his other writing, it kept me interested and reading. And I liked how he described what was happening to Bec, I felt as if I was actually there.



Plot: 9.5/10

Ah the plot, I could go on forever talking about what happened in the book. SO, I decided to just sum it up into one sentence. It is 400 years ago demons are invading the world, a group of warriors (and Bec) must go on a journey to defeat them, and rid the world of the demons. Yeah, that sounds a little ridiculous. Read the goodreads blurb, it’s a lot truer and it makes a lot more sense. The plot is really good and keeps you interested, wanting to know what happens, every step of the way. The journey they go through is amazing.



Enjoy-ability: 9/10

Very enjoyable, a fun read that will keep you enjoying it throughout the entire book.



Overall interestingness: 10/10

What can I say? Overall, the book is really interesting. The plot is interesting, the characters are interesting, and it even has a tinge of romance. Isn’t that what makes a good book. Because it sure made a good book for me.







Only way to describe the book...


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Review - Flowers in the Attic

Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know why I read this...
Guess I was in a mood for something really disturbing...

So because there isn't much of a plot i'll give it to you, the book centers around 4 brothers and sisters – Chris, Cathy, Carrie and Cory. Carrie and Cory are twins. They all live a happy life with their parents. They are all blond and beautiful, but that all changes when their father is killed in a car crash. Their mother can't support the children, so she decides to pack them up and move in with her rich parents, that the children have never met before.

So they arrive at the mansion, and the children are informed that their grandfather does not know they exist yet, and they need to hide in a locked room until their mother can reveal the news to grandfather. She makes it sound like it will only be for a few days, but it goes on for ages. And only the grandmother knows they exist (she brings them food every morning, but calls them "devils spawn").

Time drags on and within the room, the children have access to the attic, where they can run and play and make noise. In an effort to keep the twins happy, Cathy and Chris begin to put up paper flower decorations as if trying to convince the twins it is not an attic but a beautiful garden.

The confinement in the attic continues on. The mother continues telling the children she needs just a little longer, and the time between her visits begins to stretch out.

What I thought of it:

Flowers in the attic was freakishly disturbing, but not that bad. There are tonnes of references to sex and sexuality, but their mostly a young girl’s dreams of romantic love and sexuality – so not that bad. It wasn't the writing that hooked me in, because the writing is terrible but the plot. The story grabbed from the start and I couldn't stop reading. I recommend it, overall it's probably worth reading.


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Boredom & Waiting

Today is the lovely day of the big cancer council party and all my friends have abandoned me. They're all getting here around 7. Why can't they just get here now?!? Gah. The boredom!

Review

Demon Thief by Darren Shan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love all the books in this series, so much that I have rushed out and bought each book the minute I finished with the last. I loved the series so much that I pushed it onto all of my friends to read it (half of them didn’t bother, their loss).


Demon Thief is the second in the series and it was funny (a lot more than the first, I loved it but it was so serious), scary (we got to see where the demons lived), and generally awesome.


Characters: 9/10

I loved these characters a lot more than I liked the ones in Lord Loss; there was just something about all the characters on a whole that I liked more. Maybe because we could see everyone’s personality’s in a different light, when they were younger and not through the judging eyes of Grubbs Grady. The characters in Demon Thief are also a lot funnier and all though the situation is bad these characters are able to make light of it.


Writing: 9/10

The writing and dialogue once again had me sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation for what was to come. The fight scenes, when he was describing the new demon lairs all amazing, I really felt as if I was there watching or there listening in.


Plot: 8/10

Here we are taken back 30 years into the life of Kernel Fleck, Kernel has an ability, he can see lights that open up doors to other dimensions and places in the universe. Kernel’s brother has recently been stolen, so he needs to go on a quest to find him. Kernel meets many people while searching the universe for his brother, one of them being a young Dervish Grady. The plot to this book is good, but not one of the greatest in the book. I liked meeting younger versions of people that I’m sure I’m going to see again and I liked how it was set, the fact that he could jump from place to place really quickly. Overall, the plot was original and kept me interested for the whole book.


Enjoy-ability: 7/10

I’m giving it a seven because Demon Thief is not for everyone, sure, I loved it, but that doesn’t mean you will. Sure give it a go, but if your not into this genre or are just looking for something good to read. Sure check it out but like I said before, this may not be the book for you.



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Review

Love Story by Jennifer Echols
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There is just something about Love Story... that I think deserves a review, and I don’t normally give reviews. I really like Jennifer Echols, there is just something about her writing that captivates me. I have never given her books anything less than a four. So, it’s no surprise that I am giving Love Story 5, and if I could give it higher, I would. 



Love Story is about Erin Blackwell and Hunter Allen. Erin and Hunter go to the same college in New York. Here’s the catch, Hunter and Erin already know each other. Hunter worked at Erin’s grandmothers horse farm as a stable boy. Except the tables are turned, Erin’s grandmother decided to give Hunter Erin’s inheritance, all because Erin did not want to major in business and run the farm. There is a obvious attraction between the two of them and throughout the book, through short storeys, they write for class and real (story world) life, their attraction develops... Da-da-daa-daann (a theme song from god knows where ;).



I liked a lot of stuff about this book. Because of that, lets start at the start.



I liked the very beginning, how it did not start with the actual story, but a short story that Erin had written for the short story class she was taking. I really liked the fact that the book had short storeys like this throughout the book. I really enjoyed reading them, and then listening to the class discuss them, especially Manohar, but we will get to him later. I think the short story’s really enhanced the story, and they were probably one of my favourite aspects of the book.



Onto the climax, the writing, the characters...



I really enjoyed how the book built up to the big...'scene' and how it then kinda let itself down from there, how we were waiting for the ‘scene’ to happen and once it did the characters were left in the aftermath.



Ahh, so onto the characters, we have some very, very interesting characters and because of my weirdness (I never seem to like the hero that much, I’m more a sidekick sort of girl), I think this picture describes how I feel, especially in psych:







It also applies here, not with a pineapple though...



so sure I liked Hunter and Erin, they carried the story well, they were good quality people, they were a good couple. But sadly they were not Manohar and Summer, these to had to be hilarious as a couple, and I think I am absolutely in love with them as a couple, god would I love a book with these to as the main people. They were both sidekicks to Hunter and Erin and when it came down to it, they both had hilarious storeys and they gave hilarious advice. Oh yeah and they hated each other, so watching their romance play out on the side was just hilarious.



The writing, can’t say much here as I mentioned it before, but like all of Jennifer Echols writing I loved it. It was easy to read and had some interesting words thrown in there. It was good. 



Onto the ending...







I felt good un satisfied at how the book ended, I can’t say much without giving a lot away, but I personally think it would have been better if the author had explained more, I dunno, written more, made it longer (maybe a sequel? With Summer and Manohar?). But I guess I can see why she ended it that way, in a way it sorta made a little sense. 



Overall, it’s a good read and I recommend reading it, really ☺







In the very end, end, end. I was satisfied. 


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