Sandy
I have to say what I loved most about Immortal by Gillian Shields was the way the story was told, the way it was written and that if Ms. Shields were to write a new story or series I would not hesitate to pick it up because I know not only will the writing be beautiful but the story engaging. However, when I think about continuing on to read Betrayal, the sequel to Immortal, I can't help but hesitate because even though Immortal was a haunting magical story about gaining and losing love I couldn't truly believe in the love between Evie and Sebastian because I couldn't believe in either of these two characters. Read more
What can I tell you about Zoe's Tale other than the fact that I loved it and that you should definitely read it? I suppose I could tell you why right?
First of all the best part about Zoe's Tale is Zoe herself. A sarcastic, witty, intelligent girl I couldn't help but think if that her story was told by someone else with only half her charm the story would not have snared me quite as effectively. Zoe felt so real and she was so likable that I wish that I could meet her in person. I've never read a character so self-aware and honest with herself that I have to give props to Mr. Scalzi for writing a teenage girl so well. Read more
It was a decent read. It may have probably been best if I started from the beginning of the series as opposed to starting with book #5 but I understood what was going on. Both Jack and Annie are travelers who travel to different places through pictures in books by the use of a Magical tree house that belongs to Morgan Le Fey. In Night of the Ninjas the siblings realize that Morgan needs their help. The magical librarian has left behind an unfinished message for them with clues, they must find four things and to do this they must travel back to ancient Japan where ninjas and samurai were quite common.
I like ninjas so I borrowed the book from my friend and read it in about 15 minutes, a nice read but not interesting enough for me to continue onto the next book to find out how Jack and Annie will help Morgan. If I was the intended target reader though I'm sure I would have enjoyed this much more :).
As a Dark-Hunter fan I loved this book but I think if I were a newbie as I suspect a few teen readers would be who may pick up this book I don't think I would have loved this book that much.
As a fourteen year old Nick Gautier (Go•shay) is just as sarcastic, charming, and smartass as his adult self and just a little jaded. You can't really blame him for a being a little negative though because our Nick's had a rough life. He lives in a one bedroom condo with his single mom who has to work as a Bourbon stripper to support her and her son. The kids at school don't make his situation any better by picking on him for things he can't control and the teachers aren't all that sympathetic let alone nice. Nick's a tough kid though, an AP student on a scholarship who loves his mother. Of course remember Nick is still a smartass and once he mouths off the principal and gets himself suspended things start getting a lot more interesting. Read more
What I love about Sophie Kinsella's writing is that her heroines are always full of life and spark. Their thoughts tend to run wild but never off on tangents and they always seem to get themselves into hilarious situations. It's always a fun adventure when I pick up a Sophie Kinsella book, whether it is Lexi Smart who can't remember the past 3 years of her life or Lara Lington who thinks she gone mad because she's being haunted by her Great Aunt Sadie. Read More
This story had a bit of a slow start not too slow and not for very long but what I mean is that it didn't automatically grip me from the very beginning. Meghan, our heroine, is a sort of an outcast at school and she also feels that way in her own home. Her family is poor, her step-father doesn't seem to care for her all that much and at school the popular kids i.e the cheerleaders and jocks look down at her and tease her for living on a pig farm way out in the boondocks. But once I got pass the slow start, the set up of Meghan's life, and into the actual story I couldn't help but love this book more with every page. Read More
A very quick read, its based on the original and I haven't read the original so I don't know how much was changed or whether this story had some parts better or some parts worse. I have seen the Disney animated film but that is completely different. My favourite part of this story were Eliza and her brothers, they were all very kind and loving towards each other and I love stories with strong family bonds. I was aggravated however with their father who allowed himself to be tricked by their evil stepmother, the king who fell in love with Eliza for not really trying to save her and at one point Eliza herself for not being able to do something to rescue herself.
Still its a very short story geared towards readers much younger than myself and I believe for the length of the book it told the story well with beautiful illustrations.
It was difficult to decide whether I liked this book or not. In the beginning I did and in the end I did but there were moments, several moments, throughout the story where I couldn't help but not care anymore or moments where I just skimmed the pages to move forward and other moments that had my eyes glued to the pages. It funny how divided these moments are into their separate little parts of the book because there are four parts. Read More
The foundation of this story is that Natsume also inherited from his grandmother, along with his gift for seeing spirits, is the Book of Friends. The Book of Friends is a book filled with names of spirits or Yokai that his grandmother had tricked into putting their names in the book. And whoever possesses the books control the Yokai to do whatever they like and they can kill the spirit by destroying the page that holds their name.Read More.
I don't love this book but I do like it and I think what kept me from loving it, despite the beautiful metaphors and deadly werewolves, were the characters. I couldn't relate to any of the characters or connect with them, they were all very well developed and I could believe that they were actual people but they weren't people that I would ever want to meet. Vivian our heroine is very confidant she knows that any boy would want her and any boy should want her and this instantly put me off her. I think it's because I couldn't relate to her at all which is what kept me from loving her story.
But it was a very good story and I am glad I stuck with it. A very hot read and it's what I usually expect from a werewolf book – fighting, killing, lusting, and loyalty to the ones you call family.
After the ninth or tenth time Twig was almost killed I thought that was all this book was going to be about - Twig's next struggle to NOT die - and for the most part that's really what it was, the poor boy had been almost eaten, bludgeoned, drowned, digested and a number of other things more then I can count, and by the time I finished chapter 11 I had to wonder what was the point of all this? Was this book just a series of events or was there a reason for all of it?
There was, believe me and because there is an underlying plot and not just a series of adventures strung together I love this book. read more
I almost lost faith in the very beginning, the book was present tense, the break dancing terms I didn't understand and I wasn't being immediately gripped so I placed the book down. When I picked it up again though I decided to stick with it, the present tense I quickly got over and I enjoyed how quickly I was going through the chapters, always reading one more before I went to bed. read more
CC is able to become what I have always dreamed of being ever since I saw The Little Mermaid as a little girl. She gets to become a beautiful mermaid and to swim freely in the sea away from the responsibilities and confinements of the real world. Living right next the ocean myself it's not hard to have this dream and very hard not to envy CC who can now swim with fishes and communicate with dolphins. Being a mermaid however isn't all the magic CC had wished for because taking the beautiful Undine's place comes with a price. Read more.
The first book was a bit mostly mystery and then the action came. The second book was definitely the cat-and-mouse thriller and the third was the ending. There was action, double crossing and romance, the story has ended but there are still questions I want to be answered. At least I got a sneak peek into at the next YA trilogy though ;)
Expect a more thorough review in the future ^_^.
Well I'll say its a good start to the series though considering that this series consists of three volumes I had a feeling the pace was a bit fast while simultaneously not having enough development in the first volume. The characterizations are done well, these girls actually feel like real teenagers to me and not your typical outrageous girls you come across in manga.
I was hoping that I would like this book but I unfortunately did not. We'll start with the positives, I liked that the setting of this story is not your typical high school. The atmosphere of Sword & Cross is secluded and dark. Their is a sense of mystery that hangs over the dilapidated buildings and unkempt grounds of the school and it suits the mood of the story well.
The students themselves are also not our typical cliques that we come across in YA books that are set in high school. Yes, Luce categorizes the students into stereotypes when she first sees them sitting outside but the minor characters she interacts with do not fall into these groups.
Now the negatives, I felt Fallen could have been written about any magical creatures whether vampires, angels or elves. The protagonist, Luce was frustrating and certainly not someone I would want to deal with. She didn't feel like a worthy heroine to me, she wasn't worthy of her friend Penn who I found to be a strong, smart and witty, independent girl and she wasn't worthy of Daniel who places her above everyone else.
I cannot see myself picking up Torment when it comes out later this year.
Recommended for fans of The Immortal Series by Alyson Noel.
I feel kind of guilty for not finishing this book because I won it off of Goodreads and since I did I had every intention of finishing it and giving it a review but after about 8 months of reading a bit, putting it down, picking it back up and reading other books I've given up for the moment.
It was a bit of a slow start but after I got over that hill the story really started picking up as more and more things were being revealed and coming together but then around page 57 what happens? We hit a flashback from the point of view of a character we hadn't had the POV of before and that would have been about 100 pages and I didn't want to deal with it anymore. Still I haven't lost complete faith, I'm lending it to a friend and if she can read it and likes it I'll pick the book back up and give it another try :)
Also don't go by what I say here if you want to read the book read it because I never finished it so how can I judge how it is when I don't really know?
When I started reading Deep Love Virus I did not know it was a one shot, so I was very surprised at how fast the pace was set but only mildly surprised when I reached the end of the book (I thankfully figured out it was a once-shot before then). The story was cute (shojou what can you do ;)) and the main character Mako is actually quite lovable, even when she would constantly burst into tears I could not get annoyed with her. The one person I could get annoyed with though was Haru. I had to put Haru under the list of characters I wanted to smack for being so darn confusing! From the very beginning this guy would do one thing and then contradict his actions by acting like nothing happened (you can tell that from the synopsis) and it just got old really quickly. Now I move on to Shun, I love Shun. He was the quiet, I'll keep my emotions hidden type who is the one person you'd want to be your shoulder.
For a one-shot/short story I have to say this manga was really good and is in fact the only one-shot manga I actually like so far. Of course the pace was a bit fast- you don't get a lot of time to see things develop, but there is only so much you can do in one volume and I was not at all annoyed with the relationships that developed in this story. I do believe however that the ending was tied up just a little too neatly when it came to a happily ever after for everyone. A little strange too.
Bloody Kiss is a short story about a high school girl who inherits an old broken down mansion from her grandmother. What comes as a surprise though is that the mansion is inhabited by two vampires.
I'll be honest and say that this story was OK. The main character, Kiyo, is a smart strong willed girl who can basically take care of herself and I like that about her. If you read a lot of shojo manga our heroines tend to be love struck girls who need saving every five seconds or they or on the opposite end of the spectrum and are annoyingly aggressive. Well Kiyo tends to lean towards the aggressive side of the spectrum (and usually when our male MC tries to make moves on her).
There doesn't seem to be an underlying story but many little ones which doesn't help that the story is short already. We get little bits and pieces of Kiyo's and Kuroboshi back stories but its not enough. We know that Kiyo's father was falsely accused of a crime and she wants to be a lawyer but that's it, nothing else is told about that part of her life. We know that Kuroboshi is a dhampir and that he was an outcast because of it but that's it nothing more.
There was a great potential for this story to be good if it was longer and allowed time for character and plot development and took out the little stories that never really added any substance to the romance that was supposed to be in here.
If volume one gave me a headache and had me confused volume 2 just has me LOVING this series. Its probably because a lot of things are explained while other things (new and old) still have me wondering and still reading to find out. But at least there is the mystery without the headache you know? Mystery I can take. Anyway, I am loving Oz, he is fantastic but Raven has my heart, there is a reason he's on the cover of this volume - you are gonna find out something very special about him ;).