Teaser Tuesday - April 10, 2012

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

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• 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!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

" You can find him by following the leaping shadows along the walls of the school corridor, for Father Vivaldi often paces there and waves his arms about. This time he's so intent on whatever he hears in his head, he doesn't notice us dancing around him or running right past."

From "Hidden Voices" by Pat Lowery Collins

Book Review - "The Summer I Turned Pretty" by Jenny Han

Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Release Date - May 5, 2009
Number of Pages - 276
Series - The Summer #1

Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer--they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

My Thoughts:
1. This novel has a very authentic, summery feel. The setting is described very well and that makes the book very enjoyable and perfect for the beach.
2. I found the characters to be very realistic. However, I found Belly to be pouty at times, but fortunately that didn't ruin the book for me.
3. I have really enjoyed the flashbacks! I think they provided more depth to the characters. 
4. One thing that did irritate me, was some minor plotholes, ex. one thing happened when Belly was 14, and then 20 pages later it says that the thing happened when she was 13.  IRRITATING.


Rating - A-

Book vs. Movie - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I decided that I wanted more diversity on my blog, so I decided to start comparing some books and movies. I am not sure how often I will do this, but I hope that I will do it at least once a month.

Book Review - "Demonglass" by Rachel Hawkins

Publisher - Hyperion
Release Date - March 22, 2011
Number of Pages - 359
Series - Hex Hall #2

(Synopsis not included in order to avoid spoilers)

My Thoughts:
1. I really loved the characters in this one! Sophie was sassy and awesome, Archer seemed more likeable, Cal was just and amazing and Jenna is the coolest fictional vampire.
2.  The actiona scenes were written very well. It was very easy to imagine what was going on and it did not get confusing.
3. The setting, which was an old mansion in the English countryside, was totally awesome and it really fit the story.
4. The dialogue and the sarcastic remarks made this book very enjoyable.
5. Because of the ending, I MUST HAVE THE NEXT BOOK!

Overall, this is an amazing sequel and I recommend this series to everyone.
Rating - A+

In My Mailbox #17

Once again, I got some great titles this week :

Once again, my dear friend Hannah pressured me into getting this at the library. However, I am very excited to read this and it sounds exactly like something I would read.

Source - Library

(image unavailable)             Sound very cute! I could not find the cover on Goodreads unfortunately.                 

The Hocus Pocus Hotel     Source - Netgalley

by Michael Dahl

The setting of this is the old west, which sounds very exciting because I love cool settings.
Source- Netgalley









I look for ward to reading all of these!

Book Review - "Ashes, Ashes" by Jo Treggiari

Publisher - Scholastic
Release Date - June 1, 2011
Number of Pages - 344
Series - I am really surprised this is not a series. I could have sworn it was a series, but Goodreads suggests otherwise.

A thrilling tale of adventure, romance, and one girl's unyielding courage through the darkest of nightmares.
Epidemics, floods, droughts--for sixteen-year-old Lucy, the end of the world came and went, taking 99% of the population with it. As the weather continues to rage out of control, and Sweepers clean the streets of plague victims, Lucy survives alone in the wilds of Central Park. But when she's rescued from a pack of hunting dogs by a mysterious boy named Aidan, she reluctantly realizes she can't continue on her own. She joins his band of survivors, yet, a new danger awaits her: the Sweepers are looking for her. There's something special about Lucy, and they will stop at nothing to have her.


My Thoughts:

1. This was another book that I have read for White Pine, and while it was not terrible I had a few problems with it.

2. The first and the biggest problem I had with this book was the lack of character development. I think that this book was focusing so much on the action, mystery and plot and therefore it managed to completely omit any chances of character development. For example, Aidan, the main love interest, was supposed to be the one of the most important characters. At the end of the book I felt like I just met him.

3. Another problem I had with this book, was that at times there way too much descriptive writing. In the first chapter, it was described how Lucy was taking out guts from a turtle (ewwww).

4. However, I thought that a lot of minor characters were very likeable. In particular Grammalie, who called everyone an animal in Polish, Sammy and Henry, who were just nice and fun.

Rating - B-

Teaser Tuesday - April 3, 2012

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

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• 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!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air."
(From The Maze Runner by James Dashner, pg.1)

I think this is an amazing first line!

Book Review - "Runaway" by Meg Cabot

Publisher - Scholastic
Release Date - May 1, 2010
Number of Pages - 310
Series - Airhead #3

Synopsis is not included in this review because of potential spoilers to previous books.

My Thoughts:
 1. The plot was very nicely formulated in this book, it was not confusing which made everything clear. There are always those books that sometimes confuse(Usually if there is a lot of action) but this was not the case.

2. This was the last book in the series,and in my opinion all the loose ends were very nicely tied up.

3. In some series, you don't get to find out what happened to secondary characters (Mockingjay, I'm talking to you) however, in Runaway you get to know the fate of most characters, which I thought was awesome.

4. In the entire series, Meg Cabot did a very good job of describing various aspects of a life of a celebrity, which the book even more awesome.

Rating - A