Book Review: Entangled by Cat Clarke

Title: Entangled
Series: N/A
Author: Cat Clarke
Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc
Publication Date: 6th January 2011
Pages: 372
Special Features: N/A
Goodreads Average Rating: 3.92

 The same questions whirl round and round in my head:
What does he want from me?
How could I have let this happen?
AM I GOING TO DIE?
17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with a table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got here.
As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget. There's falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal. But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see?
Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here?

Despite my rating, I did really enjoy this book, but it managed to let it's self down in certain places.

What caught my attention was the very interesting plot line, and I was so excited when I started reading it.
The book started out very interesting and I was already captured by the first page, but after a while it just began to loose it's effect on me, yes I was still interested but for me there was too much flashback then there was present time.

The book left me in streams of tears, it really caught my heart and ripped it into pieces. It talks the truth, it shows that the life of a teenager isn't just fine and dandy like many adults seem to believe, but instead we are forced to put up with a lot of drama.
For a stand alone book this was left with a cliffhanger and many knots needed to be tied, this affected my rating alot. Also the present time writing confused me a bit especially near the end, I kept constantly having to re-read pages and lines etc... but still couldn't figure it out.

The author touches on some very important topics, aimed at teenager's in the book, which I personally believe were tackled with class and maturity.

I liked Grace the main character, and she is anything but forgettable, but on occasional she was too much in your face, too talk-a-tive, pushy and well a number of other things. There was times I just couldn't stand her one bit.
The other characters well represent who they are portrayed to be, but also who they come after overcoming a number of obstacle's, they are faced with.
This book is....

Book Review: Love You Hate You Miss You by Elizabeth Scott

Title: Love You Hate You Miss You
Series: N/A
Author:  Elizabeth Scott
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: 1st June 2009
Pages: 276
Special Features: N/A
Goodreads Average Rating: 3.76

Get this, I'm supposed to be starting a journal about "my journey." Please. I can see it now: Dear Diary, As I'm set adrift on this crazy sea called "life" . . . I don't think so. It's been seventy-five days. Amy's sick of her parents suddenly taking an interest in her.
And she's really sick of people asking her about Julia. Julia's gone now, and she doesn't want to talk about it. They wouldn't get it, anyway. They wouldn't understand what it feels like to have your best friend ripped away from you.
They wouldn't understand what it feels like to know it's your fault.
Amy's shrink thinks it would help to start a diary. Instead, Amy starts writing letters to Julia.
But as she writes letter after letter, she begins to realize that the past wasn't as perfect as she thought it was—and the present deserves a chance too.

Elizabeth Scott has produced yet another emotional read.
This is the second book of her's I have read in two days, and both have been fantastic.

Love You Hate You Miss You, focuses on grieving for the loss of a friend, something which is so rarely touched upon in book's, but also how the girl blame's herself for the death.
It's a book that basically everyone is able to relate to because of the use of friendship, throughout the book I couldn't help but picture myself in the place of protagonist Amy, which I believe would be almost un-avoidable for any reader.

Elizabeth's writing style in this book is unique... the story is told in the form of 2nd person and also uses Journal entries and letter's to tell the friend. This helps increase that the reader has on the book. Also the book is written is quite an informal and chatty way, engaging more with the reader and allow more of a connection to be made with the main character.

Amy is a likable character, though not the best I have come across. There is not much to her, and in a way she seemed a bit more of a follower to her bestfriend.
Her bestfriend who died, Julia is also featured in the book and a character I did not like very much. She was annoying, and despite being a great friend to Amy she seemed a bit selfish in some ways.

All round this book was an enjoyable and light read, though there is better.

I give this book....

Teaser Tuesday (5)

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!

Love You, Hate You, Miss You by Elizabeth Scott

“Then the car—we went around a corner and spun out,” I said. “It happened so fast. There was so much noise, this weird ripping screech, and then it was like we were flying for real. I could feel it.
                         ------Page 140 

Book Review: Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Title: Living Dead Girl
Series: N/A
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: 2nd September 2008
Pages: 188
Special Features: N/A
Goodreads Average Rating: 3.84

Once upon a time, I was a little girl who disappeared.
Once upon a time, my name was not Alice.
Once upon a time, I didn’t know how lucky I was.

When Alice was ten, Ray took her away from her family, her friends her life. She learned to give up all power, to endure all pain. She waited for the nightmare to be over.
Now Alice is fifteen and Ray still has her, but he speaks more and more of her death. He does not know it is what she longs for. She does not know he has something more terrifying than death in mind for her.
This is Alice’s story. It is one you have never heard, and one you will never, ever forget.
I would just like to start off my saying, this book isn't for everyone, it may be marked as a Young Adult, but some reader's will disagree with that.

Many people will use the word 'distrubing' to describe this book.... I would also use that word, but I would also use 'truth', I've seen many reviews where people have just hated it for it's content and what is said in the book, but many reader's have ignored the fact that this book may be fictional but is also 'real'.

It's a book full of raw emotion. Straight from the beginning we are told the horrible and sorrow-filled story of a girl. A girl, who was taken from a happy life full of freedom, and forced into the arms of a 'sick' and mentally dysfunctional man. It is a hard issue to tackle and I believe Elizabeth Scott did this to near enough perfection.

It is the first Elizabeth Scott book I've read, and I can't wait to read more. I became attached to her wonderful writing style and story idea's. The book in a whole is something which will always lingering in the back of my mind, never to be forgotten

The book is short, something which I'm not a big fan of when it's a book I really enjoy, but it's perfect for the story it tells.
It's far from a book full of useless information, it only tells what is needed to be said and this it's self gives such an effect to the reader. I guess you can almost say it's not a book to entertain, but instead a book to tell. It says that despite our happiness, there will always be someone suffering, someone who could even be close to us, a neighbor, or friend.... anyone!

The book in some places repeated it's self, for example the use of Once Upon A Time, this helped build the story line, but also the emotion. Each time we see Once Upon A Time, we are supplied with new information about 'Alice', this was probably my favourite bit about the whole book.

I do not know what to say about the character's in this book.
'Alice', is a character I believe I have no right to judge. Not only is she a fictional character in the book, but a fictional character to herself. She is not who she is by choice, but instead forced to be someone she is not. But still is an incredibly strong character.
Ray, is 'Alice's' kidnapper, the antagonist in the story. The reader is made to hate such a sick man, but I will admit there were times I found myself feeling quite sympathetic towards him. We witness fragments of his childhood, he like 'Alice' is not who he is by choice, but is also forced to be someone who he isn't, by the past he has experienced.

I could not find myself able to rate this any lower than five, because it deserves nothing less, it entertains (I guess could be said), it tells and most importantly it teaches.

Review: The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade

Title: The Ghost and the Goth
Series: The Ghost and the Goth #1
Author: Stacey Kade
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Publication Date: 29th June 2010
Pages: 288
Special Features: N/A
Goodreads Average Rating:  4.02

 After a close encounter with the front end of a school bus, Alona Dare goes from Homecoming Queen to Queen of the Dead. Now she’s stuck as a spirit (DON’T call her a ghost) in the land of the living with no sign of the big, bright light to take her away. To make matters worse, the only person who might be able to help her is Will Killian, a total loser outcast who despises the social elite. He alone can see and hear (turns out he’s been “blessed” with the ability to communicate with the dead), but he wants nothing to do with the former mean girl of Groundsboro High. 

Alona has never needed anyone for anything, and now she’s supposed to expose her deepest, darkest secrets to this pseudo-goth boy? Right. She’s not telling anyone what really happened the day she died, not even to save her eternal soul. And Will’s not filling out any volunteer forms to help her cross to the other side. He only has a few more weeks until his graduation, when he can strike out on his own and find a place with less spiritual interference. But he has to survive and stay out of the psych ward until then. Can they get over their mutual distrust—and the weird attraction between them—to work together before Alona vanishes for good and Will is locked up for seeing things that don’t exist?

My expectations were pretty average on this book. I didn't expect anything amazing, nor anything completely rubbish, but I expected better than I received.

The book didn't manage to hold onto my interest, after the first few chapter's. The beginning was strong, and kept me interested, but afterwards lacked any excitement. When I was about 3/4 way through the book I really couldn't believe it, it felt almost as if the story was still in the beginning stages. The story plan didn't seem very well-developed, and with a little bit more time spent on the planning, it could of been dramatically improved.

The book was also quite short and very fasted paced in someways, I would of enjoyed to see much more time of Alona getting over her death, and also on Will's past.

The book is set in the POV's of two characters: Alona Dare and Will Killian. This was one of the good things about the book, it allowed you to see stories from both point of views and also learn more about them.
Though both character's had disappointment's about them.
Let's start off with Alona, she plays the ghost in the story and she was head-cheerleader, prom queen etc.... when she was alive. Her parts of the story, were written in a way that you could see Alona saying this, and is was completely believable, though she seemed un-phased about being dead and a ghost. Also she is not exactly the most like-able character in the book, she's cruel and hurt-full, yet I will admit she did have her nice moment's.
Then there is Will, who has a special ability to communicate with ghost's, but due to no-one believing him, he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He's my favourite of the two, but also he's kind of a 'what you see is what you get' character, almost one dimensional.

I will not be carrying on with the series.

I really do wish I could give this book more....

What I did This Week??... (18-24 July)

So this week I would say has been a pretty good week for me, in terms of reading and blogging.
Firstly I managed to write a chapter and continue on the plan of my story.
I also changed my blog slighty, I made a new header (Tell me what you think???) and changed the sidebar a bit.

So anyway:
Books I have Read:
Legacy of Lies by Elizabeth Chandler (Tuesday)
Forever by Maggie Stiefvater (Wednesday)
Radiance by Alyson Noel (Thursday)
Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles (Friday)
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (Sunday)
I managed to catch up with my reading challenge, and hope to read 6 books next week :D

I reviewed:
Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Radiance by Alyson Noel
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stones by JK Rowling
Forsaken/The Demon Trapper's Daughter by Jana Oliver
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
I was also able to catch up slightly on reviews :D

In My Mailbox:
Well this week I bought LOADS of books, leaving after all my time of saving offically poor. The majority of my money went toward E-books in preparation for my Amazon Kindle which I will be getting on August 1st for my birthday and well I just couldn't resist:
In My Mailbox: Part 1
In My Mailbox: Part 2
Other Posts:
Book Discussion: Controversial Issues in books

Challenge Updates:
To find out full information on my challenges and what books I have read in these challenges click here or if you are looking for my 2011 challenge click here.
E-book Challenge: COMPLETE
Vampire Challenge: 1/20
Summer Reading Challge: 13/25
2011 Reading Challenge: 31/55

Participate in: The Blogger Behind The Book

I don't know many blogger's and have instead decided to create a hmmmm, I don't know what it is called.
Basically the idea is to have 7-14 book blogger's to answer some questions, about their life, the books they read etc.... so fellow blogger's and book lover's get to know each other, and hopefully more followers to your blog EEE!!!!!
To be in a chance of participating please email me at: onceuponabooknerd@hotmail.co.uk , the chance to become a part of this will end when 7 or 14 people have entered. I will then instantly get back to you, with more information.

These are the questions I am thinking of:

1. Name, Blog Name and Blog URL
2. Age and Location
3. An embarrassing picture of you
4. What do you do in day to day life?
5. Do you have any pets?
6. Last song you listened to?
7. What is your favourite food?
8. How many books do you own (This can include E-books)?
9. How many books to you plan to read at the end of the year?
10. If you could be one author, who would you be?
11. What book would you turn into a film?
12. What is your favorite genre?
13. Do you have any reading companions/friends?
14. What is your favourite book?
15. If you could kill any character who would it be and why?
16. If you could write a book, what would it be called, about and maybe add a cover for it?
17. If you could be any character who would you be?
18. If you were stuck on a desert island which 3 author's would you take?
19. Favourite film/movie based on a book?
20. Favourite book cover?
21. Which blogger do you look up to most?
22. Are you surprised by the amount of reader's?
23. What are your opinions on negative reviews?
24. Have you received any ARC's, if so how many?
25. Do you have a certain schedule for posts?
26. Link us to your favourite review you have written?

So remember if you are intrested in participating email me at onceuponabooknerd@hotmail.co.uk, or get in contact with me over Goodreads or Twitter (find the links of the side bar)