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Monday, March 30, 2009

Star-Crossed by Linda Collison

Star-Crossed by Linda Collison

Summary (from the back of the book): Patricia Kelley has been raises a proper British lady - but she's become a stowaway. To claim the estate that is rightfully hers, she must travel to Barbados, hidden in a merchant ship.

The plan works - for a time. But soon Patricia is discovered and is torn between two worlds: the dignified realm of the ship's officers, and the rough company of sailors. These worlds offer her two different futures, and two different paths to love.

Note: This is no fault of the author's, obviously, but I still feel the need to mention it because - well, I need to vent. Pages 201 to 232 were missing. Not because they'd fallen out or anything. My copy was almost brand-new and there was no gap where the pages should be. They were just GONE. Oh, and I'm slightly crabby, so I'm going to kinda mean, and maybe spoiler heavy. Sorry about that.

Review: What happens when you put a sixteen year old girl on a ship with a hot guy just a bit older than her? She ends up marrying a thirty year old man, of course. What were you expecting? I absolutely hated that she did that. Okay, I get that back then you didn't have very many options as a woman, but seriously, how about some loyalty to the man you claim to love, maybe be willing to tough out the hard times with the people you care about? Nope. Instead, she married a doctor.

Okay, I'm done that now. It was a good book, all in all. Most of the characters were pretty interesting and well-enough thought out (although there were a couple who showed up after the miss
ing pages who I had no clue who they were, and then they were gone, so that was a bit confusing), even though at times one character could easily be replaced by another, and Patricia annoyed me a bit... more than a bit sometimes.

The plot rocked for the most part, but I've honestly read it before, except for closer to the end, when she actually joins up with the army, disguised as a man, of course. If the author had explored that more, it would have made the book deeper in a way, grittier, maybe.

I know
I'm bringing this up for the second time, but seriously, seventeen year old sleeping with a thirty one year old - EWWWWW. And illegal in most places in this day and age. Historically accurate, yes, but still EW.

Conclusion: I'm going to give this one three and a half roses, points off for missing pages and pedophilia, but a good story none the less. Ones I'd read first would by The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi and With a Silent Companion by Florida Ann Town first.



Peace and cookies,
Laina



2018 edit: Closing comments due to massive amounts of spam.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

In My Mailbox (3)

In My Mailbox was inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie and memified by the Story Siren.

The bought (from amazon):

Feast of Fools by Rachel Caine (YAY!!)

Summary from Amazon.ca:

The wait is over. dig into the feast...

In the town of Morganville, vampires and humans live in relative peace. Student Claire Danvers has never been convinced, though especially with the arrival of Mr. Bishop, an ancient, old-school vampire who cares nothing about harmony. What he wants from the town's living and its dead is unthinkably sinister. It's only at a formal ball, attended by vampires and their human dates, that Claire realizes the elaborately evil trap he's set for Morganville.

Twilight DVD. You guys don't need a summary for this one, do you?

I already have this, I got it early, but I'd already pre-ordered it, so I have two copies now. Which totally rocks!! You know, there's nothing on, I could watch it again... for the fifth time.






The Twilight Soundtrack

This is really, really good and comes with a cool poster of James.

Nightmare Before Christmas Earrings, from amazon as well.

I know they're not a book, or even book related, but they're really cute!! I also got two other pairs, but I'm too lazy to find pictures for them.


The recieved (technically the won, thanks to contests):

How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier

Summary from Amazon.ca:

Welcome to New Avalon, where everyone has a personal fairy. Though invisible to the naked eye, a personal fairy, like a specialized good luck charm, is vital to success. And in the case of the students at New Avalon Sports High, it might just determine whether you make the team, pass a class, or find that perfect outfit. But for 14-year-old Charlie, having a Parking Fairy is worse than having nothing at all—especially when the school bully carts her around like his own personal parking pass. Enter: The Plan. At first, teaming up with arch-enemy Fiorenza (who has an All-The-Boys-Like-You Fairy) seems like a great idea. But when Charlie unexpectedly gets her heart’s desire, it isn’t at all what she thought it would be like, and she’ll have resort to extraordinary measures to ditch her fairy. The question is: will Charlie herself survive the fairy ditching experiment? From the author of the acclaimed Magic or Madness trilogy, this is a delightful story of fairies, friendships, and figuring out how to make your own magic.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Summary from amazon.ca:

Since the beginning of the school year, high school freshman Melinda has found that it's been getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud: "My throat is always sore, my lips raw.... Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze.... It's like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis." What could have caused Melinda to suddenly fall mute? Could it be due to the fact that no one at school is speaking to her because she called the cops and got everyone busted at the seniors' big end-of-summer party? Or maybe it's because her parents' only form of communication is Post-It notes written on their way out the door to their nine-to-whenever jobs. While Melinda is bothered by these things, deep down she knows the real reason why she's been struck mute: Andy Evans. He's a senior at Melinda's high school, and Melinda hasn't been able to speak clearly since he raped her at the senior party last August.

I want to read this one so badly!! Stupid overdue library books preventing me from reading it.

On a cover note, this is the tenth anniversary edition that I have, which is different from the original in a couple ways. It's shiny!

I didn't go to the library, so no borrowed. I think that's it. It was a busy week! What did you guys get this week?

Peace and cookies,
Laina

Edit: I forgot I recieved this one from the author:


The Stone of Alexandria by Llue Christopher

Michael Valens is a graduate student whose life is rather ordinary until a curiosity about the occult leads to an encounter with a secret magical society, remembrance of a past life in ancient times and a realization that his destiny is linked with an otherworldly Stone of incomparable power.

Friday, March 27, 2009

The Rules for Hearts by Sara Ryan

My current read just skipped from page 200 to page 233, and that rather annoys me because it's only from 2006 and obviously hasn't been read a ton, and there's no gap where the pages should be, even, so they're just missing. So I'm doing a review to try to get unannoyed at that. If it wasn't a good book, I'd probably be really snarky. Anyways, review time.

The Rules for Hearts by Sara Ryan

Summary (from the inside flap of the book jacket): Battle Hall Davies is sure of some things: She's going to Reed this fall; she loves girls; and her older brother Nick, is cooler and more together than she'll ever be. Nick ran away from home when Battle was thirteen. Now, four and a half years later, he's tracked her down, and she's spending the summer between high school and college in Forest House, the group home where he lives in Portland.

It is a summer of surprises. Battle is swept into Forest House's community Shakespeare production and its all-night card games, and into th arms of her new housemate, Meryl. It turns out Nick is not who Battle thought he was - and Battle's not who she thought she was, either.

Review: I have a fondness for books about the theatre. I'm not an actor in any way shape or form - severe stage fright - but it's still one of my favourite things to read about, which gives The Rules for Hearts a headstart of sorts. It wasn't a perfect book, though. It was well-written and easy to get into, but it didn't wow me. The characters are interesting, it's a good enough storyline, the plot progressed at a good rate, but it was missing that something, you know?

I think my biggest complaint is the brother who she's supposed to be getting to know again, we don't get to know him much. He seems very removed, and slightly underdeveloped. I mean, Battle hadn't seen him in four years but not once did they actually talk about what he'd been doing for those four years. And his big problem that she discovers at the end of the book, there was no lead-up to it, almost no foreshadowing at all.

Conclusion: It's a pretty good book, worth reading, but I wouldn't buy it. Bonus points for the pretty cover, so three and a half roses out of five.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Waiting On Wednesday (3) (A day late)

I forgot to do this. And I even made a to-do list! Anyhoo (you know, I strongly dislike that word) - Anyways, I'm doing a bit of a theme here. Partly because I got How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier a couple days ago, and partly in honor of this challenge from Books And Literature for Teens.

First up is:

Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog

Morgan Sparks has always known that she and her boyfriend, Cam, are made for each other. But when Cam’s cousin Pip comes to stay with the family, Cam seems depressed. Finally Cam confesses to Morgan what’s going on: Cam is a fairy. The night he was born, fairies came down and switched him with a healthy human boy. Nobody expected Cam to live, and nobody expected his biological brother, heir to the fairy throne, to die. But both things happened, and now the fairies want Cam back to take his rightful place as Fairy King.

Even as Cam physically changes, becoming more miserable each day, he and Morgan pledge to fool the fairies and stay together forever. But by the time Cam has to decide once and for all what to do, Morgan’s no longer sure what’s best for everyone, or whether her and Cam’s love can weather an uncertain future.

Summary from amazon.com

Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner

It has been 20 years since the war between faeries and humans destroyed everything. Liza, a teenager living in what was once the Midwest, has always been taught that magic kills. When Lizas mother gives birth to a faerie baby with hair clear as glass, her father abandons the infant on a hillside to die; Lizas mother then runs away, and Liza begins to have magical visions of her own. Petrified that her powers might cause death, Liza flees into the woods with her friend Matthew, only to be attacked by deadly trees and rescued by a woman with magic. The plot quickens as Liza realizes that the woman is connected to her mothers past, knowledge that propels Liza into a dangerous journey into the land of Faerie, in search of her mother.


Summary from amazon.com

Wings by Aprilynne Pike
Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.
Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.
In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.
Summary from amazon.com

I could do a ton more, but I'm (finally) writing a review, so I'll refrain. And besides, this is late enough!!

Peace and cookies,
Laina

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

To-do list

(By the way, in case you're wondering about all the random posts, I'm doing them so you guys don't forget about me when I don't have any reviews.)

I need to:
  • Write a review for the Rules for Hearts.
  • Do a waiting on Wednesday post.
  • Work on my blogger profile because I've had some idea for it and it's been the same since October, so it's time for some updating.
  • Maybe get a new picture for the aforementioned profile.
  • Read some of the books that are becoming/are overdue from my library.
  • Read the review book I have.
What I'll probably do:
  • Play Roller Coaster Tycoon 2.
Oh, and here's a song I'm addicted to right now.



Peace and cookies,
Laina

Monday, March 23, 2009

Awards galore

Well, not galore precisely, only two really, but that's a lot!!

First up, quite a while ago, Amanda nominated me here. I'm not exactly sure what this one is called, though, but the rules for this one are:

1. Say five things you are addicted to.
2.Nominate 5 other bloggers/people with this award.


Things I'm addicted to:
1.) Reading (Duh, of course.)
2.) My computer (I spend way too much time on it.)
3.) Music (I'm always listening to music. I have it on at least once a day
.)
4.) TV (I need background noise most of the time, or I'll go sorta crazy. :P)
5.) Entering contests (I enter tons, usually at least two or three a day. That's where most of the books I get come from. I even have another blog about it.)

My nominees:

1.) Lizzie at The Book Obsession.
2.) Megan at Simply Books.
3.) Katie at Katie's Book Blog.
4.) Ashley at Ashley's Bookshelf.
5.) Holly at Writer's Block Reviews.


Next award:


The Sisterhood Award. This is from Leah, and the rules for spreading the sisterhood spirit are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate up to 10 blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog and/or in their CBOX.
5. Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

My nominees:

1.) Sadako at Dibbly Fresh.
2.) LisaMay at Look At That Book.
3.) Katie at Katie's Bookshelf.
4.) Yan at Books By Their Covers.
5.) Liv at Liv's Book Reviews.
6.) KD at KD's Library.
7.) Amanda at That Teen Can Blog.

Okay, time to go tell people! Talk to you all later.

Peace and cookies,
Laina.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Random thoughts

It's thundering and I need to be distracted from that (because it's really, really weird for where I live), so I just thought I'd point out something I noticed recently, because I have alot of time. Oh, and because I love that kind of curly hair and love red hair.

This is the cover of The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley.

To me, her hair looks like a cross between Rachelle Lafèvre's hair in Twilight, and Hayley William's colour in Decode and recently/when it's red. (She changes it alot.)

Rachelle as Victoria (and it's hard to find pictures of her as Victoria, not as herself):



Hayley with red hair:



Thoughts? Arguements? Agreements? Tell me I have way too much time on my hands? :P

Oh, and here's a video for Decode because I love that song and it has movie clips in it.





That's it for me for now, and hopefully the storm stops soon because it's freaky this time of year.
Peace and cookies,
Laina

In My Mailbox (2)

In my mailbox was started by The Story Siren.

It was a good week, bookwise, meaning I got books, which isn't always a definite with me. This week I received:


The Comeback Season by Jennifer E. Smith

The last place Ryan Walsh should be this afternoon is on a train heading to Wrigley Field. She should be in class, enduring yet another miserable day of her first year of high school. But for once, Ryan isn't thinking about what she should be doing. She's not worried about her lack of friends, or her suffering math grade, or how it's been five whole years since the last time she was really and truly happy. Because she's finally returning to the place that her father loved, where the two of them spent so many afternoons cheering on their team. And on this -- the fifth anniversary of his death -- it feels like there's nowhere else in the world she should be.

Ryan is once again filled with hope as she makes her way to the game. Good luck is often hard to come by at a place like Wrigley Field, but it's on this day that she meets Nick, the new kid from her school, who seems to love the Cubs nearly as much as she does. But Nick carries with him a secret that makes Ryan wonder if anyone can ever really escape th
eir past, or believe in the promise of those reassuring words: "Wait till next year." Is it too much for Ryan to hope that this year, this season, might be her comeback season?

Summary from Amazon.com And it's signed!!!!! I have a bit of a pic, but my camera's not so good with zooming, so it's blurry and stuff. If it bugs you guys, I can try to take a picture with my webcam.















The Push by Julia Lawrinson

Love is just about the only hold anyone can have over another person; if you have that, nothing else is necessary.

'Is she - was she with Johnno?' asked Erica.
'It doesn't work like that,' Trish said. 'It's more . . . fluid.'
Erica is restless for a life outside her office job, the man she dates and her mother's small house in the slummy inner city.
So when she meets a 'bad' bunch known as the Push, she is quickly drawn to them. They have no respect for money, or marriage, or careers, or any of the usual things. They offer the freedom Erica is longing for - but can she handle it?
Set in 1950s Sydney, this is a dramatic tale about growing up and making choices from the author of Bye, Beautiful.
Summary from here.
This one feels cool, like the cover itself. It's not smooth like some books, the ones with glossy covers, it's... different. You know? Plus it sounds like a good one, too, lol.
Last is a random picture because I was in a picture taking mood. You can see the two books I got, plus the envelope one of them came in, a bookmark and book plate I won from Hope (thank you :D). Also, you can see a stuffed duck and one of the tacky romance novels I like because I didn't realize they were in the shot. Oh, and my Reader's Digest, it came this week, too.
So that's it for me, what did you all get this week?
Peace and cookies,
Laina

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Update

I've now watched Twilight four times. Count 'em, four. 

So besides my grey matter now being grey mush from a certain vampire, I also haven't slept well in three days (closer to four now) and am dealing with some personal stuff, so please bear with me during my review drought. I'm reading some but I just don't feel like reviewing right now. I'll still try to keep up with the weekly things I do, but reviews are going to be a bit... nonexistent for a while, I'm afraid.

Peace and cookies,
Laina

Thursday, March 19, 2009

I have it!!!!!!!!

My mom brought this home from work today:















And so you know this is real, I didn't try to make the flash not superbright, and that's my stuffed, one-earred reindeer Lefty.

So that's where I'm going to be!
Love, peace and Twilight (on DVD!!!!)
Laina

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Teaser Tuesday

Okay, so I have no idea who started this, I'm sorry, and it's 6am, so I'm not so much going to look. If anyone knows, feel free to leave a comment. Anyways, here goes.

Teaser Tuesday asks you to:
  1. Grab your current read
  2. Let the book fall open to a random page
  3. Share with us two teaser sentences from that page, somewhere between the lines 7-12
You also need to include the title of the book just in case someone wants to buy the book.

He's making Mom's fried chicken, without the chicken.
"Don't you know the recipe?" he asks me. "I know there's paprika, and garlic... but what else?"

This is from The Rules for Hearts by Sara Ryan, and I'm counting that paragraph as a sentence because otherwise it wouldn't make much sense.

Well, that's it for now.
Peace and cookies,
Laina

Monday, March 16, 2009

In My Mailbox (yes I know it's late)

Okay, so I can't keep track of the day of the week. Well, better late then never, right?

In My Mailbox is the creation of The Story Siren.

From the library I got:

Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke

Filled with juicy scandal, delightfully eccentric characters and 21 tempting recipes from Cream Cheese Frosting to Lemon Fluff Jell-O, bestseller Fluke's 10th Hannah Swenson mystery (after 2007's Key Lime Pie Murder) centers on a family reunion that turns deadly. Hannah's friend Marge Beeseman is thrilled when her brother, Gus Klein, who disappeared from Lake Eden, Minn., more than 30 years earlier, unexpectedly arrives. At the big family party, everyone wonders how the elegant, well-dressed Gus heard about the reunion and why he came back. When Gus fails to show up for the group photo the next morning, Hannah finds his body on a pavilion floor—with ants crawling around pieces of her carrot cake nearby. Hannah's malcontented cat, Moishe, and flickers of romance with her devoted dentist and the no-less attentive local police chief add spice to the subsequent murder investigation. The ending will leave cozy fans gasping for breath.

My copy has a brighter cover, but I couldn't find a picture with that colour cover, so this'll have to do.

Suite 606 by by J.D. Robb, Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas

J.D. Robb plunges Lieutenant Eve Dallas into the violent aftermath of a ritualistic murder.

Mary Blayney, investigates a deception that has kept two lovers apart for years.

Ruth Ryan Langan brings a lost man out of a storm to face a breathtaking twist of fate.

And Mary Kay McComas follows a mother, her son, and a wizard lost through the threads of time.

I loooooove the In Death series by J. D. Robb and collections like this are quite fun.

And actually FROM my mail(PO)box:

Paisley Hanover Acts Out by Cameron Tuttle

Always one of the popular kids, sophomore Paisley Hanover gets a rude awakening when she’s booted out of yearbook and into the badlands of drama class. Out of her element but only momentarily out of ideas, Paisley takes action—and an unexpected liking to her drama buddies. The result? An undercover crusade that could bring down the popularity pecking order, and Paisley along with it. This is the story of how Paisley Hanover gets wise, gets bold, and gets into a hilarious mess of trouble. With a package as fresh and clever as Paisley herself— including a cool slipcase, a fabulous novel, and Paisley’s notebook of embarrassingly funny ideas and doodles—it’s the start of a series that embraces the “Un” in UnUsual.

This is from book divas and looks quite cute. Plus I love free books. :) I practically demolished the envelope it came in.

Okay, so I guess that's it. Til next time, peace and cookies,
Laina

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Beauty Queen by Linda Glovach

Beauty Queen by Linda Glovach

Summary (from me for once because I can't find one on amazon or the publisher's website - bear in mind it might be a little... snarky): At nineteen, Sam has decided she's never going to fall in love again, because her high school boyfriend dumped her for a sugar mama. She works for $185 dollars a week at Chicken & Ribs, has a diabetic cat named Dinah, and lives with her alcoholic mother and her mother's abusive, enabling boyfriend who comes onto her regularly. So like anyone would, when she finally gets her therapist to convince her mother to pay for the security and a few months rent of an apartment for her, she gets a job stripping at a club called the Web. And because she has no confidence, even though she's 5'10 and weighs 128, she starts doing heroin. It all goes downhill for Sam from there.

Review: As you can probably tell from the sum
mary, I wasn't a big fan of this one. First of all, if your mother is always wasted and buzzed on sleeping pills, aren't you going to be less likely to try all that stuff? "If I wasn't doing this, I'd be drinking multiple bottles of booze a day like my mother because I don't have the nerve to strip and dance around topless on stage" is NOT a reason to do heroin!

Now I'm probably going to spoil the ending to this one, so keep reading at your own risk, I need to vent.

The next thing that bugged me was that... well, Sam was an idiot, to be honest. She apparently had no idea that she could get HIV or AIDS from sharing needles and she thought that the worst thing the heroin did to her was make her crave ice cream. On a more personally insulting note, she described Saskatoon as, and this is a quote straight from the book, "Saskatoon, Canada, a few hundred miles west of Toronto." Uh, hello? Look at a map, why don't you? It's not like someone visiting the States is going to say "We're heading to Houston, a few hundred miles south of New York." Countries aren't defined by single cities!!

Okay, that aside, I hated how the author treated the actual drug use itself. On the back she says that she's a former drug addict herself, and that she almost killed herself trying to get a "feel" for the book, but the way it's written, it's like... a love story about heroin, and I know how horrible it sounds. Most of what Sam said about the drug use was positive in a way. She called it her magic potion and bragged about how good it made her feel, how it gave her confidence and made her lose weight and helped her sleep if she took the right dose. She honestly thought that cravings for milk shakes and her skin looking grey with little green-black smudges around the corners of her eyes were the worst side effects. Now I'm by NO means an expert in what heroin does to your body, but I'm going to assume that there are far more side effects than that.

Next, why didn't anyone suspect anything was up? Okay, her mother is in a booze-induced haze, but still. Sam's best friend, Nicole, knew that she was shooting heroin. Nicole's father died from a heart attack caused by mixing Ritalin and speed. Did she THINK to say anything to Sam's mother? Nope. Just walked out of Sam's life and then *HUGE SPOILER HERE, I'M GIVING YOU AN EXTRA WARNING EVEN THOUGH I ALREADY WARNED YOU I MAY INCLUDE SOME* cried at her funeral when she overdosed. *DONE* That just bugged me in a huge way.

Lastly... with such a serious subject matter, it should really be geared towards older readers, right? Beauty Queen read like a book written for sixth or seventh graders. Or... not so much that as told by one. It was written like a diary, you know? And half the time Sam sounded like she was thirteen. It was disturbing, in a way.

Conclusion: It was a quick read, only 168 pages, and unfortunately it's not a book that will stick with you. It's fine, but not great. Two roses. I'd very much recommend Tweak over this one if you're looking for a realistic, good book about drug abuse.



Peace and cookies,
Laina

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Waiting On Wednesday (2)

Waiting on Wednesday was created by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week's selection:

The Morgue and Me by John C. Ford

Christopher just needed a job to kill time the summer after high school graduation. He didn’t expect it to be in the morgue. Or that he would accidentally discover a murder cover-up. Or that his discovery would lead him to a full-blown investigation involving bribery, kidnappings, more murders . . . and his best friend. And he certainly could never have predicted that Tina—loud, insanely hot, ambitious newspaper reporter Tina—would be his partner. But all of that did happen. And Christopher’s life will never be the same. With plenty of plot twists, red herrings, and dry wit, The Morgue and Me is a page-turning modern take on the classic detective genre.

What can I say? I like mysteries. :)

Better Than the Blonde by Teresa Totem

Life is almost ... well ... potentially perfect for Sophie Kandinsky. As it turns out, the Blondes were as dazzled by her as she was by them, and Sophie enters grade ten at Northern Heights smack in the centre of the power grid. There will be no more cascading lies and secrets from her, but the Blondes—now that’s another story. And her eccentric Aunties are still peppering Sophie with their eccentric advice on life, love, and how to land the elusive Luke Pearson. But in the end, the best and biggest news is also the worst. After seven years, Sophie’s beloved Papa is finally out of prison. Papa is home. Trouble is ... he’s supposed to be dead. No more lies? No more secrets?

This is the sequel to Me and The Blondes. Summary from here as amazon doesn't have it.

Me and the Blondes by Teresa Totem

Sophie Kandinsky has spent the last six years trying to keep her crazy family life secret. The devil is in the details. The first detail is her larger-than-life, eccentric, Bulgarian mother. The slightly larger detail is the fact that her gentle, poet-father has been charged with murder. All Sophie wants is to be adored and invincible, which is really hard once people find out her father’s in prison.
But this time, after yet another move to another new school, and another opportunity to wipe the slate clean, Sophie has devised a plan. On her first day of school, she will locate The Blondes—that clique of perfect, confident girls who are beyond gossip and reproach—and she will make them her friends. This time, no one will find out the truth. This time, everything will be brilliant.
Summary from here, same reason.

Wanna know something crazy? I've already read Me and the Blondes (from my library, not an ARC) because I guess it came out here (Canada) in April, 2006, but amazon says the release date is June 24th, this year. The publishing world is weird sometimes.
That's it for this week!
Peace and cookies,

Laina

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Invisible by Mats Wahl

Note: This one was hard to find a picture of the cover. I kept getting movie pictures and then I spelled the author's name wrong and that didn't help... so appreciate it!! Okay, I'm done, I just wanted to rant a bit.

The Invisible by Mats Wahl

Summary (from the inside flap of the dust jacket): One ordinary Monday morning in May, Hilmer Eriksson walks into his high school classroom and discovers that he has become invisible.
No one can see him.
No one can h
ear him.
He has no idea what's going on, and he's starting to forget things - including what happened to him two nights earlier.
Now, Hilmer's only hope in finding out what has become of his body lies with a
man named Harold Fors, the detective who is investigating Hilmer's disappearance. Fors suspects foul play, and those suspicions lead him - trailed by the ghostlike presence of Hilmer - to a group of teen misfits in the area. But how does Hilmer's life intersect with theirs?
As Fors interviews residents and scours the small Swedish village for clues, he begins to piece together the puzzle of Hilmer's disappeara
nce, a puzzle that involves some closely guarded secrets in the community.
Meanwhile Hilmer waits, silently, to learn about the events of his past, and how they will affect his future...


Review: Creepy. If I were to sum the book up in one word, it would be creepy. Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of someone being described as bleeding, and having rotting leaves stuffed into their mouths. And that's what's staying with me the most.

Okay, so maybe this one lost something in the translation. It was good and all, it just didn't cause me to stand up and cheer or anything.


Sorry, I don't know what else to say about this one, it didn't leave much of an impression on me. It's worth reading, but personally I wouldn't buy this one. Only two and a half roses out of five.



Lai
na