New Blog. Please Follow!

I have decided to create a new book reviewing blog. I slightly don't like this one, it has a load of old rubbish reviews, plus i feel like i need a new start, to push me to become a better blogger.

Trust me, my new blog will be so much better than this one, where I plan to update with either reviews, meme's or other book related post's. It's definately worth following.

My New Blog: The Reading Journal

Abandon by Meg Cabot

Title: Abandon
Series: Abandon Trilogy #1
Author: Meg Cabot
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.67
My rating: 3 stars

Pierce knows what it's like to die.
Last year she flatlined following an accident.
During that time Pierce saw a dark world and met a mysterious and irresistible boy.
Now that boy, John Hayden has turned up at school. Everytime she sees him Pierce finds herself in terrible danger. Yet she's still drawn to him.
John wants to take her back to the place she fears the most: the Underworld.
The question is why?

Meg Cabot is a well known author whose books are known to be amazing and of course popular. I knew I just had to try one and Abandon happened to be the first one to catch my eye.

I had high expectations and because it took so long for me to finally get round to reading it, I had already planned exactly what I thought would happen, leaving me quite disappointed that the book didn't go that way.
The book had massive amount of potential which I believed that Meg was unable to reach.

It took me a while before I found myself able to get along with this book. The beginning and the middle were slightly boring, despite that a lot was happening, to the point that I came close to putting the book down and giving up on it forever, fortunately the end got pretty amazing and definitely gripping.

The book partly alternates between the past and present, which was obviously an up side to the book, except I found the way Meg did it almost impossible to understand. It was confusing and near enough possible to understand, due to no visible change in writing.

A Greek mythology theme takes place in the book, but I found it almost a waste of two lines, those two lines of course being the only two lines where Greek mythology seems to appear.
I can only hope it plays a bigger part in the rest of the trilogy.

I felt like the characters were not fully established or introduced.
Main character, Pierce was someone who I couldn't relate to, mainly due to not really being able to find out about her as a person, only her past.
John, is a mysterious character, who strangely enough I feel like I know more about than Pierce.

All in all the book was an ok read, and after such a cliffhanger ending, I will be checking out the sequel for sure!

Turned by Morgan Rice

Title: Turned
Series: Vampire Journals #1
Author: Morgan Rice
Goodreads Average Rating: 3.35

18 year old Caitlin Paine finds herself uprooted from her nice suburb and forced to attend a dangerous New York City high school when her Mom moves again. The one ray of light in her new surroundings is Jonah, a new classmate who takes an instant liking to her.

But before their romance can blossom, Caitlin suddenly finds herself changing. She is overcome by a superhuman strength, a sensitivity to light, a desire to feed--by feelings she does not understand. She seeks answers to what’s happening to her, and her cravings lead her to the wrong place at the wrong time. Her eyes are opened to a hidden world, right beneath her feet, thriving underground in New York City. She finds herself caught between two dangerous covens, right in the middle of a vampire war.

There's three things which in my mind make up a book:
-Decent story Line
-Writing Quality
-Decent character's
This book seems to lack all three of these things, though I will say that the story line had a lot of potential just the writing quality nor the character's were good. A 150 page book is not recommended for a YA book, as it's not enough time to have a well paced book.
This book began with a quite standard beginning, which was the only reason I made it through the book, but near enough straight away we were pulled into this so called 'action', which was where the book went dramatically down hill. It was confusing, completely unbelievable (even though a vampire book)and too book happened for a 150 page book.

The character's I couldn't get along with.
Caitlin, the main character, had barely any introduction, only the fact that her family were dysfunctional. There wasn't much to her and she just seemed rather bland and quite gormless.
Her brother just seemed to basically disappear and no one seemed to care, almost like the author was attempting to give this impression of a normal family you would find in America.
Character's walked in and out, and it got stupid in the end. I would not recommend this book at all, I couldn't get along with it. I don't even have anything good to say about this.
I give this book...

IMM and My Week (8/1/12)

In my mailbox is hosted my Kristi at The Story Siren.

Feed by Mira Grant (My Review)

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

My Week!

Current Books Completed this year: 4/53

Current Number of Books Completed This Week: 4

1. Feed by Mira Grant (Review)
2. Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick
3. The Lost Saint by Bree Despain (Review)
4. Hate List by Jennifer Brown

The Lost Saint by Bree Despain

Title: The Lost Saint
Author: Bree Despain
Series: The Dark Divine #2
Goodreads Average Rating: 4.10

 A family destroyed. A love threatened. An enemy returns.

Grace Divine made the ultimate sacrifice to cure Daniel Kalbi. She was infected with the werewolf curse while trying to save him, and lost her beloved brother in the process.

Desperate to find Jude, Grace befriends Talbot, a newcomer to town. But as the two grow closer, Grace's relationship with Daniel is put in danger - in more ways than one.

Unaware of the dark path she is walking, Grace begins to give into the wolf inside of her - not realizing that an enemy has returned and a deadly trap is about to be sprung.

Another second book which gives a series a bad name.

The first book, was amazing, enjoyable, slightly romantic, and action-packed.
The second book, this book, the cliché of a YA sequel.
I feel as though we spend the whole of the first book waiting for the most perfect couple's in the world to come together, but in the second book, we watch as the couple pull themselves apart, due to their own stupid acts, in the attempts of saving each other.

So yes, as you may of gathered I wasn’t the biggest fan of this book, I will be completely honest by saying that in fact the book was good and would definitely of received a higher rating if I wasn't forced to compare it to the first book.

The positive though, unlike The Dark Divine, this book is almost completely action-packed, making the reader stuck on the edge of their seat, unable to pull themselves away from the book. Each moment something, relatable to the storyline is happening throughout the whole book.

With the new, interesting storyline, brings introduction of the new characters, who I do not really know my opinion on mainly due to the fact that throughout the book your being told their good, then bad, then good again, to the point the only thing you want to do is completely forget the existence of the character, until they are fully needed.

Another fault with the characters, is based around the original set, though this is mainly directed to main character, Grace. Once a polite preacher’s daughter, who had her thoughts of rebellion, but was realistic for the role she played, took a massive step into becoming this wanna-be strong, inspirational character, who in the end makes a fool out of herself, and supports other books portrayal of weak females, being forced to depend upon male's to save them from every 'dangerous' event put in front of them.

Though I will it to her, that she isn't the only character to change, but least no one changed as much as her without a reason to

 I will carry on this series, despite all the bad things I found to say about it, it's definitely a series I wish to carry on.

I give this book:

Feed by Mira Grant

Title: Feed
Serious: Newsflash Trilogy #1
Author: Mira Grant
Average GoodReads rating: 4.01

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED. Now, twenty years after the Rising, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives - the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will get out, even if it kills them.

YAY!!! Book 1 of the year, down, just 52 left!
This is the kind of book, which despite the fact that all you have heard good things about it, it still manages to surprise how amazing it actually is.

I began reading this book, in a half hour break between college classes, and almost refused to put it down. In such a little amount of time I had already managed to be dragged into the world of the book and not wanting to leave.
The book is about a world, the same as ours, though no longer plagued with the common cold or cancer, but instead a new kind of illness. When each person dies, they do not stay dead, they come back of zombie's roaming the streets trying to find someone to turn into one of their own.
Georgia, Shaun, Rick and Buffy are a group of bloggers, who base their lives on writing, filming and reporting zombie attacks. But the blog is given an offer which can't be refused, to follow a presidential campaign.
The book goes straight into the action, automatically hooking the reader, and leaving them on the edge of their seats, and even each time beyond the first chapter, it's near impossible to put the book down.
The writing is a mixture of two. The normal, every day book writing style, telling the story and also casual writing coming from the character's in the occasional blog post, which was a really nice added factor in the book and probably my favourite bit.
I loved the story of how it mixed such an adventurous story plot in with a storyline partly evolved around politics's. The zombie's may take a back seat in the book, but you know that they are constantly there as a threat. The storyplot altogether was slightly confusing, it took a while before I could fully understand what was going on, though this did not pose much of a problem.

The character's were unique and strong.
Georgia, otherwise known as George is the character who stands out the most, and not just due to her narrating the book, but to how much of a strong and inspirational character she is portrayed to be. She's strong, stubborn but also such a lovely person.
Shaun, is George's adoptive brother. He is known in the bookworld as an Irwin, someone who seeks danger/adrenaline, and the kind of person who will willingly go and poke a zombie, either hes crazy or suicidal, but one thing  I know for sure he is, is a rather humorous character, he compliments the book so nicely, stood next to his sister, and the relationship they have is amazing, despite being in their twenties, the sibling's are unbelievable close.
Buffy, is a very unique character, well not just character, but person altogether. She's almost distant in the world, and serves her life as a Fictionist, making up poems and stories, but she's also the techie of the group. You can tell within the story she is not that close to the sibling's, but still she holds a level of commitment, but due to the limelight of the story not overly focusing on her I felt as though I didn't get to know her so well.
I could go on and on about all the good things about this book, and find it very hard to mention a bad thing. But here is the bad thing:
This book is wonderful for the way it portrays it's female character, they are all inspirationally strong, except one. A politician, known to get so far in her career due to her sexual assets, due to being a bit 'dumb' according to the book. She is the only female politician in the book, and despite politics being largely known as a male dominated career, it does not put us women in the best of light's, slightly ruining the book for me.
I give this book a well earned:

My opinion on the book blogging world-Part 1

After over a year of blogging as much as I can I have just a mere 166 followers, compared to people who blog for about 3 months and end up with nearly a 1000, does it bother me? No, it honestly doesn't.
I feel like the world of book blogging has been overtaken by people who are not passionate about sharing the opinion of their favourite books, but to gain a form of fame in this world, and also receive as many free books as they can.

On a weekly basis we see some of the more famous book bloggers, come out with Advice post's and Hints and Tips (which is a great thing for them to do), most saying the same thing:

• Make your blog look amazing and eyecatching as you can, to persuade people to check out your blog.

I care about how my blog looks, but I would not put the appearance of my blog before anything else, all I can think is, if your willing to judge my blog by the appearance instead of the content, then your lose, simple as.

• Blogging takes commitment, do it as often as you can!

I blog as much as I can, though I refuse to review every book I read, and even if I have to I'll spend a few weeks not blogging. Why? Because this is my blog, no one elses. I blog for my fun and entertainment, not use this as my job. I have college and work, and well much more to do in my life, then spend all day blogging.

• Make your reviews sound as professional as possible.

This is a bit of advice I agree with, but also disagree with. Yes we all want to be reading amazing reviews, whether positive or negative, but like me, some people just are not that good at reviewing books. I put my honest opinion, and I feel like this is something which has been lost in the blogging world, just to force everything to sound so professional, hence why I try and make my post's as casual as I can, especially seeing as it's mainly Teen reader's I'm blogging for, and not all these author's and publishers.
I'm not the best writter, I don't spell well, nor do I use long words, but I do believe that my blog is the best I can make it, and I'm proud of that.

Review: The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

Title: The Gathering
Series: Darkness Rising Trilogy
Author:Kelley Armstrong
Pages: 359 
Special Features: 1st Chapter of The Summoning
Goodreads Average Rating: 4.04

Strange things are happening in Maya's tiny Vancouver Island town. First, her friend Serena, the captain of the swim team, drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. Then, one year later, mountain lions are spotted rather frequently around Maya's home—and her reactions to them are somewhat . . . unexpected. Her best friend, Daniel, has also been experiencing unexplainable premonitions about certain people and situations.
It doesn't help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret, and he's interested in one special part of Maya's anatomy—her paw-print birthmark.

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This book was a great and gripping read, though filled with a number of flaws.

Book Review: Birth of a Killer by Darren Shan

Title: Birth of a Killer
Series: The Saga of Larten Crepsley #1
Author: Darren Shan
Pages: 256 
Special Features: N/A 
Goodreads Average Rating: 4.26   

Before Cirque Du Freak...
Before the war with the vampaneze...
Before he was a vampire.
Larten Crepsley was a boy.
As a child laborer many centuries ago, Larten Crepsley did his job well and without complaint, until the day the foreman killed his cousin/bestfriend  as an example to the other children. In that moment, young Larten flies into a rage that the foreman wouldn't survive. Forced on the run, he sleeps in crypts and eats cobwebs to get by. And when a vampire named Seba offers him protection and training as a vampire's assistant, Larten takes it.
This is his story.

This book follows the story of Larten Crepsley, as a young boy, working in a silk factory with his cousin and best friend, Vur. After a number of unfortunate events, Larten is forced to flee from his home and ends up in the arms, and protective care of, Seba, a well respected and very old vampire, where Larten than takes the opportunity of becoming his assistant, and be potentially blooded.
We see as Larten grows from boy to man, from human to vampire, and we follow the story of the much loved man who was originally featured in Darren Shan's: Darren Shan Saga.

Why I do not participate in banned book week

Banned Book Week 24th September-1st October, and a book blogging week I refuse to participate in by saying I've read a Banned books.

There is a number of YA which people have attempted to ban, see the main word there ATTEMPTED. Yes a number of books get literally banned from certain schools and libraries, which I do not condone, and think it is 100% unfair, but these books are still available to me, therefore they are not banned.
I was looking through a Banned Book Week reading challenge and came across books like: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and Harry Potter by JK Rowling, three of probably most popular series, not just in YA but for all ages. Come on people Harry Potter has sold half a billion copies, the majority which would of been read. Does that sound banned to you?
Then there is The Giver by Lois Lowry, which is a book I plan to read, and could probably walk into any English speaking book-shop and find them sitting there right in front of me, no glass window or laser beams stopping me from reaching it, NOTHING!!!! Except a known ban in one school or something.

I'm not criticizing any blogger or reader who is participating in Banned Books Week, I'm just merely posting my opinion, and reason's why I don't participate.
But if you want to join in then feel free, and have a great time.

Happy Reading!!

Book Review: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Title: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Series: The Forest of Hand and Teeth #1 
Author: Carrie Ryan 
Publisher: Gollancz
Publication Date: 10th March 2009
Pages: 310
Special Features: Preview of The Dead Tossed Waves 
Goodreads Average Rating: 3.61

In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

I don't know what to say about this book really. It is one full of different things and can be described and reviewed in many ways.
It was a great and enjoyable read, though a book which before I started reading it never caught my fancy. I did expect a lot from it, I saw many good reviews on the book, and I will be one of the first to admit it was good, and well worth a read, though the book did not provide me with what other books do.

The story line was one which is rare, and very unique within it's self, not like any dystopian I have read before, but part of the book I just hated.
I felt like the whole trilogy was forced into one quite short book, and that too much happened, which despite what you may say is not always a good thing. This book alone could of made a trilogy, and I partly wish that the first half was a bit more stretched out.

Why I Won't Be Blogging As Much??

I've recently started college, where I will be taking Psychology, Sociology and Maths, but unfortunately these are very demanding subjects and I'm expected to do the same amount of work outside of college, as I do inside, and around exam time, I've been told my free time will be for sleep and probably nothing else.

Fortunately I will only actually be in college for 3 days a week, though more of 2 and a half. On Wednesday I'll be there from 9-12, Thursday: 9-5 and Friday 9-4.30, not including the hour and half it takes me to get home, and already within the 3 days I've actually been at college, I've witnessed my sleep dramtically decrease, so I will probably spend alot of time asleep.

I am going to try and read when I can, and keep up blogging as often as possible, but sometimes when I just get home from college I want to relax laid in bed, trying to rid of my headache.

I am so sorry to have to take a slight break from blogging, but getting into a routine for college is far more important.
Anyway I will go now, as I have 9 pieces of homework to do by Thursday, so I better get busy!

Review: Soul Beach by Kate Harrison

Title: Soul Beach
Series: Soul Beach #1
Author: Kate Harrison
Publisher: Orjon Children's
Publication Date: 1st September 2011
Pages: 256
Special Features:
Goodreads Average Rating: 3.8

When Alice Forster receives an email from her dead sister she assumes it must be a sick practical joke. Then an invitation arrives to the virtual world of Soul Beach, an idyllic online paradise of sun, sea and sand where Alice can finally talk to her sister again - and discover a new world of friendships, secrets and maybe even love . . . . But why is Soul Beach only inhabited by the young, the beautiful and the dead? Who really murdered Megan Forster? And could Alice be next? The first book in an intriguing and compelling trilogy centred around the mystery of Megan Forster's death.

 This was a book I had hear near to nothing about, yet it beat expectations and went beyond.

For me it is a proper British book, which follows simple yet effective storyline, has well done characters and a book due to it's English background I could feel as though I related to it much more.

Soul Beach, is about Alice who six months after the death of a reality TV star sister, Megan received an email from Megan. At first Alice ignores it and see's it as someone's version of a sick practical joke, until another email arrives, but this time from Soul Beach, an interactive website, leading straight to a waiting room for the young, beautiful and dead.

The book was original, fantastic and relate-able for today’s teenage generation, Kate Harrison doesn't just create the 'world' of Soul Beach, but instead creates it to be an interactive website, exclusive only to those invited. In a way it is more of the social-networking site for the dead and there loved one's. Also another thing which makes the book appeals to teenager's in the use of trends used, for example Facebook, which made me as a reader be able to go 'Hey I use that' or 'Oh yeah, I've heard of that', making it a perfect read for someone not overly obsessed with reading.

I managed to read the book in one afternoon, and was completely tangled within the enticing storyline, and was flipping through the pages until there was no pages left to turn. Yet the book itself lacked something, something which bought it from the outstanding five star rating, to the respectable and good 4 star. Despite my addiction to the book, and inability to put it down, there was nothing to keep me going, excluding the all round storyline, I didn't expect much to be on the next page, though maybe the page after that.

Someone which I really enjoyed was: every now and then there would be chapter's, not proper chapter's but more of thoughts of Megan's killer, I believe that this was the perfect choice which the author made to keep the reader interested and hopefully these small 'chapter's will follow through till the end of the series, leaving the reader's to make there own decisions on who is the murderer.

This book hosts one of the best collection of character's I have ever came across, and it's very rare to have all character's are so well developed, also there is a mixture of character's coming from all different backgrounds and stereotypes, something for everyone.
Take Alice for example, despite being the main character of the story you see her obvious thoughts of always being over-shadowed by her sister, before her death, yet any rivalry that went on she soon forgot about. Also we see a rather dramatic, yet expected development within her character. Towards the beginning of the story she is a very timid and shy person, though as the book goes on she becomes much stronger and inspirational, not just as a person but a character too.
Another character I liked was Danny, Danny is a friend of Megan's from the island, and one of my favourite character's due to his story of why he is the way he is. Danny during the book is quite friendly, sympathetic and wise, though as we find out in the book he was once quite a spoilt and self-centred brat, his death which is believed to be his fault was what changed him, realising he needed to be a better person.

This book can't be compared to know another books, because it's nothing like anything else I've read or came across. It really is in a league of it's own.

I give this book....

In My Mailbox

In my mailbox is hosted my Kristi at The Story Siren.

For Review:

Soul Beach by Kate Harrison (1st Sept 2011)

Galley:

LIE by Caroline Bock (30th August 2011)

The Sweetest Things by Christina Mandelski

Shattered Dreams by Ellie James (6th December 2011)

You are my Only by Beth Kephart (25th October 2011)

Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (27th December 2011)

The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison (4th Feburary 2012)

Bought:

Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles

Matched by Ally Condie

Wildthorn by Jane Eagland

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

One Day by David Nicholls

The Goddess Test by Aimme Carter (E-book)

Bite Me by Parker Blue (E-book)

Gossip Girl by Cecily Von Ziegesar (Audio-book)

Amy and Rodger's Epic De-tour by Morgan Matson (E-book)

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire (E-book)

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks (E-book)

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (E-book)

Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson (E-book)

Falling for Romeo by Jennifer Laurens (E-book)

Magic Hands by Jennifer Laurens (E-book)

Overprotected by Jennifer Laurens (E-book)

Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson (E-book)

Won:

Both from Portrait of a Woman:

Boys for Beginner's by Lil Chase

The Kissing Game by Aiden Chambers

So What Happened This Week??

Monday: Review: A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

Wednesday: Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Friday: Review: LIE by Caroline Bock

Weekend Question

Weekend Question is hosted by Liz at Cleverly Inked

Q. 

Do you read the books before your child does? Or do you think parents have the right to say yes or no to a book?

 

A.

Honestly, I believe that this Question is one which could be accompanied by hours of discussion.

Yes I do believe that up to a certain age a parent should perhaps supervise what their child reads, but I believe that once I have a child I probably will allow my child to read what they want.

My mum, didn't care what I read as a child, firstly because as a child I had gone through alot, things which were unlikely to be featured in children's books, and by the time I was reading Adult and YA books she believed it was right for me to read what I want to read, even if that book involved sex when I was twelve.

 

Also I think it believes it depends on how the child in question will respond to what was in the book. I have always been mature and the book would be very unlikely to leave an ever-lasting impression on me.

Review: Lie by Caroline Bock

Title: LIE
Series: N/A
Author: Caroline Bock
Publisher: St.Martins Griffin
Publication Date: 30th August 2011
Pages: 224
Special Features: N/A
Goodreads Average Rating: 3.86

Seventeen-year-old Skylar Thompson is being questioned by the police. Her boyfriend, Jimmy, stands accused of brutally assaulting two young El Salvadoran immigrants from a neighboring town, and she’s the prime witness. Skylar is keeping quiet about what she’s seen, but how long can she keep it up?

But Jimmy was her savior. . . .
When her mother died, he was the only person who made her feel safe, protected from the world. But when she begins to appreciate the enormity of what has happened, especially when Carlos Cortez, one of the victims, steps up to demand justice, she starts to have second thoughts about protecting Jimmy. Jimmy’s accomplice, Sean, is facing his own moral quandary. He’s out on bail and has been offered a plea in exchange for testifying against Jimmy.

The truth must be told. . . .
Sean must decide whether or not to turn on his friend in order to save himself. But most important, both he and Skylar need to figure out why they would follow someone like Jimmy in the first place

I was really looking forward to reading this book, and was highly disappointed. The synopsis sounded great and I really believed I was going to enjoy the book.

The book focuses on four friends, who to protect one another from being arrested they are forced to LIE (hence the name of the book) but after an attack on two Hispanic brother's goes from bad to worse, the truth begins to eat them up.

Within the first few pages I was bored and overly confused. But I carried it on, slowly it was becoming interesting, but took a dramatic U-turn and was back to where it started. The only thing motivating me to finish the book was it was a review Galley and I really wanted to prove myself as a reviewer.

The book focuses mainly on loyatly, friendship and racism, but I expected friendship and loyalty to take the bigger role, which apparently it does not. I have only ever read one series about racism before, and found this book quite hard to read due to the racial element's in it. I'm not saying they are handled wrong, because they have not. I am just someone who has never been around such racial attacks, and I possibly believe that it could be toned down a bit more.

Within the book we witness numerous amount's of POV's from many different character's (I counted 10 in total). For me this was good and bad. Firstly it caused a large amount of confusion for me and throughout the book the amount of focus of such a large amount of character's slowly began to prove hard to keep track of when I came across them later on.
But as the book progressed I realised that for the storyline of the book, a large amount of POV's was just right, but maybe not this many. It allowed you to see such a horrible event, through not just one or two eyes, but everyone who seemed to be involved and effected. Also it allowed much more background information on the character's to be shown.

Caroline's writing style was not so good. I felt almost like I was being told instead of shown, which is slightly understandable seeing as a large proportion of the book was based on the past events which had taken place, but even the present parts it seemed to lack allot.

The book was quite hard to read, and on some occasions highly un-believable.
Jimmy, and a number of other character's are very much Racist's, they have strong views that no one from other countries should be allowed in America full stop, and Jimmy's view managed to influence, his small group of main friends: Skylar, Sean and Lisa-Marie, to the point that they begin to think what he says is true. Jimmy is also the school's sport star and it is slightly portrayed in the book that despite everyone in the school knew what really happened, they refused to grass him up because of his position. This for me seemed unbelievable and I just couldn't get to grips with it.

I will only talk about one character, which is Skylar.
I felt almost like Skylar was the only character I properly saw enough to talk about and I would say the main character of the book.
Skylar is the girlfriend of Jimmy, who has been charged of attacking two Hispanic brother's and is still in prison.
Skylar seems very reliatent on her boyfriend and is constantly saying how Jimmy would always have a plan, and Jimmy said this. Also she yearns  to much for him, and seems to care much more about the fact that he is in prison then anything else, at that moment of time (which I guess is believable).
She on the other hand is quite a third-dimensional character, depending on the way you think and see things you may say that her personality and reliance of Jimmy is due to her past, which is discovered in the book.

I give this book...



   

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee &  Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet new blogger friends!

Q. In books like the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) series the paranormal creature in question "comes out of the closet" and makes itself known to the world. Which mythical creature do you wish would come out of the closet, for real?

A.
Hmmm, Honestly I'd slightly prefer none, True Blood alone has proven that mythical creatures becoming known in a bad thing and I'd much rather prefer not to be killed by being drained. But I would have to pick Vampires, mainly because they are AWESOME!!

Book Trailer #3: Heavenly by Jennifer Laurens

Heavenly by Jennifer Laurens

Doesn't it just look so Good!!!

Check out the Book Trailer for: Overprotected

I'm excited to read ALL of Jennifer Lauren's book, they look very unique and amazing!!

Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Title: Matched
Series: Matched #1
Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Puffin (UK)
Publication Date:  December 2010
Pages: 366
Special Features: Interview with Ally Condie
Goodreads Average Rating: 3.79

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.
The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

A whole different type of dystopian.

A dystopian love story, which follows the same kind of plot line of every other dystopian I have read. Yet for me Matched stand out much more, it isn't based just on taking down a society which is wrong, but instead focuses on the love triangle, featured in this story.

I can tell that the sequel: Crossed is going to be the same high standard as Matched, and perhaps better, even at the early stage in the series, I can tell straight away that Ally Condie has some big plans for the books ahead.
The book is more for female reader's, yet would be appealing to all ages and gender's.
Despite, the love dominating storyline, there is something for everyone and a very exciting read.

It was not at all predictable and constantly left you feeling like you were literally hanging on the cliff, with all the cliffhanger's, featured within the book, some solved in Matched and other's will be solved later in the series.

This dystopian, in different to other's I have read and seems to be slightly more civilised than other's, and Ally Condie has made such an amazing effort of making the society relatable to what we live in today, yet still of changed to the point of making it a 'dysopian'. In this book we still hear about the old 'society' as it was not that long ago, and you still see aspects of everything being changed by the Officals.
The character's for me were the best yet.

Cassia, manages to hold the same strength as a character as other female protagonists in Dystopians do, yet she is different. We witness a much larger change within her, and it was great seeing the change from Cassia at the beginning of the book, to tactical and strong Cassia it closed on. She is very relatable and holds the same emotions females hold today. She get's excited for her Match banquet, where she will find out who her partner will be for rest of her life, and even gets excited after finding it out.
Ky, one of two male protagonist's, and the guy she realises she has feeling's for, has became my new fictional crush. He is quite a broken and different boy, to other's we come across in the book, and has this type of bad boy edge, which makes him very appealing. Though at times he seems quite adorable, and what is better than a cute bad boy. Like Cassia, we also see him change throughout the book, though less as the person he is from the begging of the book, but instead stand out much more, and gain what could be seen as 'book confidence'.
Xander, the other male protagonist in the book, is quite a love hate character. I really liked him at the beginning of the book and thought he was going to be my new fictional crush, but slowly he became one of these characters who I couldn't stand.

This is a must-read Dystopian, which you are bound to love, the same I do.

Book Review: A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

Title:  A Stolen Life: A Memoir
Series: N/A
Author: Jaycee Dugard
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: July 2011
Pages: 286
Goodreads Average Rating: 4.00

In the summer of 1991 I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had friends and a mother who loved me. I was just like you. Until the day my life was stolen.
For eighteen years I was a prisoner. I was an object for someone to use and abuse.

For eighteen years I was not allowed to speak my own name. I became a mother and was forced to be a sister. For eighteen years I survived an impossible situation.

On August 26, 2009, I took my name back. My name is Jaycee Lee Dugard. I don’t think of myself as a victim. I survived.

A Stolen Life is my story—in my own words, in my own way, exactly as I remember it.

Hardest review I have ever written.
A Stolen Life: The true story of Jaycee Dugard, a girl kidnapped in 1991 age 11, found 18 years later.

The book written by herself, tells her story full of manipulation, emotional abuse, rape, loneliness and hope.
A girl who had been through people's worst nightmare's and came out stronger than ever, with two young girl's (her daughter's) by her side.

It is hard to believe that this story is about a girl kidnapped 4years before I was born, and found when I was thirteen.
Since her rescue I have followed her story via, online articles and TV shows and I knew I just had to read her book, her story.

It is a book, which tells of the events which happened, from being taken on that early morning in 1991, to the moment to she was rescued and even beyond. It tells what happened, and the emotions she felt, with even a Reflection piece every so often, as she reflects on what she has written. It's amazing how much she has remembered and horrible to think that this really happened, to such a young and happy girl.
I will admit the book is not amazingly written, like other best seller's, but for someone who was basically taken from the world she once knew, and couldn't even go to school, it was spectacular.

It is a must read for anyone who is interested in the Jaycee story or many other genre's, it really gives a first perspective view of this horrible event which happened in her life. The book has given her a chance to tell her story the way she wanted to tell it. This book is one, which will forever linger my mind and I hope I, nor no one else forgets this story of hope and survival.

Jaycee Dugard, herself is someone who I officially look up to. Not many people who have been through even a percentage of what she did, come out stable and ok in the end. She may never of put up a fight against even Nancy or Phillip, but she did what she had to do to survive and stay safe.
I love how in the book she says she one day dreams to be a bestseller, and now her dream has came true and I only wish more happiness on such a wonderful and amazing person.

Warning: This book is not for the faint-hearted. It is upsetting, and I had to put it down numerous amount of times, so I was able to calm down.

I would feel horrible if I didn't give this book a 5star rating, but it does deserve it aswell...