Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho

Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho
First published by HarperCollins in 1999 (this edition by HarperCollins in 2009)


Description (from Goodreads)

Twenty-three-year-old Veronika seems to have everything she could wish for. She goes to popular night spots, dates attractive men, and has a caring family. Yet something is lacking in her life. So on the morning of November 11, 1997, Veronika decides to die.After she awakens from an overdose, Veronika finds she has only days to live. The story follows Veronika through those intense days as, to her own surprise, she finds herself drawn into the enclosed world of the local hospital she is staying in. In this heightened state she experiences things she has never allowed herself to feel: hatred, fear, curiosity, love, and sexual awakening. Gradually she discovers that every second of her existence is a choice between living and dying. Paulo Coelho's Veronika Decides to Die, based on his own moving personal experience, is about people who do not fit into patterns society considers to be normal. It is about madness and the need to find an alternative way of living for people who face prejudices because they think in a different way. InVeronika Decides to Die, Paulo Coelho invites the reader to discover the world that lies outside the routine and addresses the fundamental question asked by millions: what am I doing here today?" and "why do I go on living?"

My thoughts
Veronika Decides To Die is the first book by Paulo Coelho that I have ever read. Though we have had a number of his books in our house for ages (my brother went through a Coelho phase a few years ago), I had never really felt the urge to read one of them. Until I decided it was finally the time to give one of them a try. Even though Paulo Coelho is more well known for his book "The Alchemist", it was VDTD that I decided to try first, because I rather liked the sound of the story.

At the beginning of this book, Veronika attempts to kill herself with an overdose of pills. It's not that she is unhappy; it's that she's not really happy that leads her to make that decision. That she doesn't really have anything worth living for; that her life is devoid of meaning. She just did the same thing every day, that she just reached that point where she knew exactly where she would be at what time the next day. No deviation from the norm. But Veronika does not die. Instead when she wakes up, she finds herself in a mental hospital, the infamous "Villette", where she is told that the pills she overdosed on caused very serious damage to her heart and that she probably would only live for a week at most.

At the beginning of that week, Veronika just feels as if she has been cheated. She wanted to die, but was unsuccessful in the attempt. She doesn't like the fact that she doesn't get the chance to decide when she dies (like she did with her suicide attempt); that her heart will just fail her at any time. After a couple of days of not wanting to accept the fact that she is not dead, she starts associating with the other "tenants" of Villete. Each one of them has their own story of how they ended up there and each one of them influences Veronika in their own way.

Though Veronika Decides To Die was a great story, I didn't find myself completely swept away by it. A lot of my friends read Coelho when I was still in school and they all thought it was weird that I hadn't tried reading one of his books. Now that I have, I do recognise the appeal, but not so much as to say "Now, why didn't I read this years ago?". I did like his style of writing, so I am definitely going to be reading something else by Coelho (after all, we do have quite a few of his books!) I really liked how he dealed with the psychological aspect of the whole story and I liked his choice of characters. Each one of them brought his/her own to the story: craziness (from somewhere you don't expect), disappointment, hope, even love.

And, to end this review, a quote that I loved:

“Be like the fountain that overflows, not like the cistern that merely contains.” 

Rating: 7/10

Author:

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian author, born in 1947 in Rio de Janeiro. He worked as a theatre director, an actor, a lyricist and a journalist, before finally becoming an author. He has written many books which have been translated into many languages. Some of those include The Alchemist, Brida, The Devil and Miss Prym, The Witch of Portobello and, his latest, The Winner Stands Alone.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011

Glimmerglass by Jenna Black

Glimmerglass by Jenna Black
First published by St. Martin's Griffin in 2010 (this edition by Pan Macmillan in 2010)

Book #1 in the Faeriewalker series


Description (from Goodreads)

Dana Hathaway doesn’t know it yet, but she’s in big trouble.  When her alcoholic mom shows up at her voice recital drunk, again, Dana decides she’s had enough and runs away to find her mysterious father in Avalon: the only place on Earth where the regular, everyday world and the captivating, magical world of Faerie intersect. But from the moment Dana sets foot in Avalon, everything goes wrong, for it turns out she isn't just an ordinary teenage girl—she's a Faeriewalker, a rare individual who can travel between both worlds, and the only person who can bring magic into the human world and technology into Faerie.
Soon, Dana finds herself tangled up in a cutthroat game of Fae politics. Someone's trying to kill her, and everyone seems to want something from her, from her newfound friends and family to Ethan, the hot Fae guy Dana figures she’ll never have a chance with… until she does.  Caught between two worlds, Dana isn’t sure where she’ll ever fit in and who can be trusted, not to mention if her world will ever be normal again…

My thoughts
Glimmerglass is the story of Dana, a young girl who lives with her alcoholic mother and has never had any contact with her father. One day things with her mother go too far and she makes the decision to leave her home and go to live with her father in Avalon: the only place on earth where faeries and humans co-exist. Her arrival in Avalon isn't what she expected and she soon finds out that a) her father is a pretty important man in Avalon and b) she is a Faeriewalker, an individual who can travel between both world and the only person who can bring technology to Faerie and magic into the human world.

Glimmerglass is the 4th faerie book I've read this year and I was very glad of the fact that it differed significantly from the others I've read (Wings by Aprilynne Pike, Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr and The Iron King by Julie Kagawa). They all follow the same basic outline (with Seelie and Unseelie courts), but each one of them has very distinctive features that set it apart from the other faerie books. (I'm always referring to the ones I have read myself) In Glimmerglass, there is a strong focus on politics. Dana's father and aunt are directly involved and Dana herself - because of the revelation of her status as a Faeriewalker - is thought to be a valuable asset for each and every one of the political big-wigs.

Dana, as a character, was ok. It is obvious in the beginning of the story that she is just plain fed up of "clearing up" after her mother (which is why she decides to up and leave), but then, as the story goes on, and she discovers more and more about her new friends, her father and Avalon, she becomes confused, defensive and distrustful. She is headstrong and tries to make decisions for herself, and while I can't say I loved her, she didn't come off as too annoying.

I was really appalled by the "parent situation" in this book, too. Why is it that in every other young adult book the protagonist has to come from a broken/nonexistent/noncaring family??? Her mother's behaviour throughout the book was pretty bad and irritating and her father wasn't so great (but without being too bad either). As for the boyfriend situation, I have to admit that I didn't really like Ethan. I much preferred a certain other person who appears later on in the book! (If you've read the book, you know who I'm talking about!)

Glimmerglass is a book that is definitely worth reading, if you are in the mood for something fairy-like, but with a splash of something else too. The characters are well developed, the storytelling is good and the plot while, in my opinion, isn't very fast paced, it is definitely engaging and appealing enough. I, for one, will definitely be reading the next books in the series.

Rating: 7/10


Author
Jenna Black has a BA in Physical Anthropology and French from Duke University. Initially, she wanted to be a primatologist, but then found out that primates spend most of their time doing ... not much! She has published quite a few books, including the next two in the Faeriewalker series.

Shadowspell (Faeriewalker #2)  |  Dark Descendant (Descendants #1)  |  The Devil Inside (Morgan Kingsley #1)

You can find out more about Jenna Black and her books from her official website!

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, 1st In A Series Challenge 

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpartick

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
First published by Simon & Schuster Children's Books in 2010 (this edition by Simon & Schuster Children's Books in 2010)


Book #2 in the Hush, Hush series
(My review of: Hush, Hush)




Description (from Goodreads)
Nora Grey's life is still far from perfect. Surviving an attempt on her life wasn’t pleasant, but at least she got a guardian angel out of it. But Patch has been acting anything but angelic lately. He’s more elusive than ever and, even worse, he’s started spending time with Nora’s arch-enemy, Marcie Millar.
Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who’s moved back to town, if Patch hadn’t been acting so distant. Even with Scott’s totally infuriating attitude Nora finds herself drawn to him – despite her lingering feeling that he’s hiding something.

Haunted by images of her murdered father, and questioning whether her Nephilim bloodlines has anything to do with his death, Nora puts herself increasingly dangerous situations as she searches for answers. But some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything – and everyone – she trusts.


My thoughts
Crescendo is the second book in the Hush, Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick and continues with the same story which started in Hush, Hush, approximately 4 months after the events in the first book. For those of you who have read my review of Hush, Hush (there is a link up there, if you would like to check it out), you will know that Hush, Hush was one of those books that I had been avoiding, because of the fact that it seemed to me that it was just another fallen angel story. When I did get round to reading it (which was because I managed to get my hands on a cheap copy of it), I will admit to enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. So, when one of my friends lent it to me, I read it straight away! (Well, that and the fact that I couldn't choose which book to take with me on my holidays, so I just took that one).


Since Crescendo is the second book in the series, this review will definitely contain spoilers about the things which happened in Hush, Hush. So, only proceed to the next paragraph, if (a) you've read Hush, Hush or (b) you don't mind spoilers.


By the end of Hush, Hush, Patch and Nora were pretty much in a relationship. But only a few chapters into the story, everything goes downhill for very little reason. On top of the fact that Nora and Patch break up, Patch can more often than not be found with Marcie Millar, a girl Nora has never been friends with. On top of THAT, there is also the arrival of Scott, an old family, after many years away, who also acts as if he has something to hide. And to make matters even better, Nora is haunted by the image of her father, who was murdered nearly a year before the events in Hush, Hush.


All of that sounds as if it could make up a really good story. And it does, only not as good a one as Hush, Hush. I am going to be very shallow here and admit to not liking it as much because there wasn't as much interaction between Patch and Nora as I would have liked. Other than that the story was perfectly engaging. There were plenty of things going on in the book, especially including Patch, Marcie Millar and Scott (though not necessarily all at the same time) and they did make me want to read on and on, to find out what happened next, why it happened etc. And there was that ending! I did quite honestly not see that one coming. Up to a certain point in the novel, I was convinced of the worst, when suddenly BANG! Something happened that I could never had predicted! And I liked that.


All in all, Crescendo was a rather enjoyable book, marginally less so than Hush, Hush and I will definitely (definitely!) be reading Silence when it comes out. Plus, I have to get my hands on a copy of Crescendo for myself.


Rating: 7/10


Author:
You can find out more about Becca Fitzpatrick at the end of my review of Hush, Hush.




Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, 2nd In A Series Challenge

Ash by Malinda Lo

Ash by Malinda Lo
First published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in 2009 (this edition by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in 2010)








Description (from Goodreads)

In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

My thoughts

Ash is a retelling of the story of Cinderella, with a very very important twist; the main character, instead of falling in love with some sort of prince, falls in love with the King's Huntress. And therein lies the problem, from what I've gathered. Lots of people on Goodreads seemed to have had a problem with 'Cinderella' being in a lesbian relationship. I will admit to thinking it is rather weird, but then again, Ash is a retelling. Which means that Malinda Lo has used a well known fairy tale (and some things that happen in it) as a backdrop in which to set her own story. In my opinion, the point of retellings is telling a well known story in a different way. If you just say the same things with different words, then it's not a different story. In this, the author has succeeded.


I'm not going to go into any details about the story, as we all know what happens to Cinderella in the original fairy tale. Ash follows approximately the same pattern. Ash's mother dies and her father remarries to a woman who already has two daughters. Then her father also dies and Ash is forced to become a servant for her stepmother and stepsisters. And the prince is also looking for a wife (and the stepsisters are vying for his attention). But there are some very important changes. First of all, the addition of the King's Huntress, Kaisa, a character who has a rather elevated position in the King's court. And secondly, the addition of actual fairies and quite a bit of fairy lore in the story.


The actual writing is very fairytale-like. There is a wonderful choice of words and a very atmospheric portrayal of both the world everything happens in, as well as the characters. The characters are well developed (though not extremely so) and the story flows very well. I just kept reading and reading, until, at some point, I realised I had read 100 pages or so. And one of the things that I liked the most (though it is rather superficial) was the play on the name of the main character. Ash is really short for Aisling, but I liked how it kind-of has the same meaning as Cinderella (as in ashes/cinders). That's just the way I saw it.


As for the main characters, Ash is a rather complicated character; she is timid at first, clinging onto everything she knows from her past in an attempt to keep going in her present circumstances, but, as the story progresses, grows into herself. Kaisa seemed a little distant at all times, but I couldn't really connect with her, though she was likeable enough. As for Sidhean (the fairy), he was rather creepy and possessive for the most part, but he really did help Ash when she needed him, which made him ok.


So, all in all, Ash is definitely a story worth reading. It is very enjoyable, very well written and rather different, which is also what makes it unique. And it really shouldn't be thought of as a lesbian Cinderella retelling, because it is much more than that; it is a story in its own right.

Rating: 7/10


Author:
Malinda Lo is a graduate of Harvard and Stanford Universities and is the former managing director of AfterEllen.com, an entertainment news site for lesbian and bisexual women. Ash was her debut novel, published in 2009, but since then, she has also published Huntress, the prequel to Ash.

You can find out more about Malinda Lo and her books on her official website.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011

Wildefire by Karsten Knight

Wildefire by Karsten Knight
First published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing in 2011 (this edition is an e-Galley, courtesy of the S&S Galley Grab programme)


Book #1 in the Wildefire series






Description (from Goodreads)

Every flame begins with a spark.

Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She’s struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. When Eve’s violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California’s redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn’t go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she’s one of them. To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she’s got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.

My thoughts

Before I start saying anything about this book, I have a comment to make regarding character names. As of late, I have read three books whose main characters are named Ash. Granted, they're all different Ash's (Ash from Aislinn in Wicked Lovely, Ash from Aisling in Ash and Ash from Ashline in Wildefire). Just saying...

Anyways... Wildefire... This book tells us the story of Ashline Wilde, a girl who has faced many problems growing up and even more during the latest year in her life, which caused her to want to transfer to Blackwood Academy, a private school thousands of miles away from where she lived. There, she leads a rather peaceful existence for a while (and by peaceful I mean that she ends up being the captain of the tennis team and she is also dating one of the hottest guys at school), when one night something unexpected happens. Something which leads to 6 students being thrown together, when they hadn't really spend much time together before. 

As is obvious from the blurb, there are gods and goddesses involved in the story. That might just seem like another shot at quite a popular subject in young adult fiction as of late, but Wildefire manages to stand out. Mainly for the reason that it is a mesh of different gods and goddesses from different civilisations over the world; there's Egyptians, Japanese, Norse, Polynesian and a little bit of Greek. The writing was also rather good and helped draw me into the story, despite the fact that for a large part of it, there is not that much going on. The ending of this book was what surprised me the most. It was action-packed and some of the things that happened just came out of nowhere. Especially that very last thing that happened. If you've read Wildefire, you'll know what I'm talking about. Honestly, though, talk about unexected!


As for the characters, most of them were very well developed. We got to see a little bit of the past of each one of them (though obviously we got to see more of Ashline's) and it helped with the background building. Even still, I would have preferred a little more explanation about the whole god/goddess thing and how that came to be. As for my least favourite character, that would have to be Eve, Ash's sister. She is unbelievably irritating, seems to justify some completely and utterly wrong actions from her part (like murder) and seems to show up very often in the book, making her even more irritating. She's definitely not an ideal older sister.


All in all, Wildefire was a rather good book, with an interesting plot and solid characters. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series, Embers & Echoes.


Rating: 7/10


Author:
Karsten Knight has been writing since the age of 6 when he wrote a book series about an adventurous worm.  He has held a number of different jobs, including being a proofreader and a bookseller, until he finally settled on becoming a writer. Wildefire is his first book, with another two coming after it in the series: Embers & Echoes and Afterglow.
If you are interested, you can find an excerpt of Wildefire to read HERE or you can check out his website (where he uploads all those ridiculously hilarious videos).


Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, 1st in a Series Challenge

Love Story by Jennifer Echols

Love Story by Jennifer Echols
Published by MTV Books in 2011 (this edition is an e-Galley, courtesy of the S&S Galley Grab programme)








Description (from Goodreads)
She's writing about him. he's writing about her. And everybody is reading between the lines.. 

For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions--it's her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family's racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin's college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?

Then, on the day she's sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He's joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin's heart with longing. Now she's not just imagining what might have been. She's writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter . . . except this story could come true.


My thoughts
Wow... Huge blurb. Though it's not really relevant. Love Story is the first book by Jennifer Echols I have ever read. I had been seeing so much about her and her books on a large number of blogs, that when I noticed that her latest novel was available to read through the S&S Galley Grab programme, I jumped at the chance to read it.


Love Story tells the love story between the two main characters of this book, Hunter and Erin. It's obvious right from the start that there is something between them, something that is unresolved and causes tension in their 'relationship'. Erin is attending a course creative writing as part of her majoring in writing/journalism and she is just having her first story critiqued when Hunter walks into the classroom. What no-one knows is that Erin and Hunter grew up together on the same farm and also that, when Erin's grandmother disinherited her, she gave all her college fund to him, as well as promising him Erin's inheritance.


The book opens with Erin's first short story that is being critiqued on the day Hunter joins the class, which I thought was interesting and original.  Throughout the book, we get to read more stories written by both Erin and Hunter and which reveal, in a rather special way, what has happened between them. Echols has done a brilliant job of differentiating the styles of the two writers, making their stories unique to each one of them.


The actual story was not much. It progresses naturally, just as Erin and Hunter's 'relationship' progresses, but, to me, it came off as chick-lit for young adults. I don't say that in a demeaning way; chick lit is a wonderful genre in itself and one I often turn to when I am in need of something to cheer me up! I mean it in the way that chick lit is usually about relationships and the way they progress to reach a final state (good or bad) at the end of the book. That's what this book felt like to me. One thing I really did like about it was that the characters were at university. I think the fact that they were both 18 (or was it 19?) gave the author the freedom to move her story in different ways than she would have had to if the characters had been younger.


All in all, Love Story is a perfect summer read (and by that I mean, it's lovely and it will make you feel happy at the end)! I had a few moments when I was confused, as things seemed to come out of nowhere, and I did feel the ending was a little rushed and left some things unresolved, but it really was a lovely read. I am definitely going to try out something else by Jennifer Echols!


Rating: 7/10


Author:
Jennifer Echols is the author of a number of romantic comedies and romantic dramas targeted to the young adult market (but not only!). Some of her books include:

Endless Summer   |   Going Too Far

You can find out more about Jennifer Echols and her books from her website!

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
First published by Arrow Books in 2004 (this edition by Arrow Books in 2004)









Description (from Goodreads):
The New York Times bestselling novel about a woman who falls in love with a man she shouldn't.
Rachel is an attorney living and working in Manhattan who has always been the good girl-until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend Darcy throws her a party. That night after too many drinks Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy's fiance. Although she wakes up determined to put the one-night fling behind her, Rachel is horrified to discover that she has genuine feelings for him.
As the September wedding date nears, Rachel has to choose. She discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk it all to win true happiness.


My thoughts:
I was in the mood for a fluffy, light read, and what better than some chick-lit! The main reason I chose Something Borrowed was because of the fact that the film adaptation of the book was released just recently and brought the book to my attention. I managed to snag a copy through Bookmooch, so it was a good deal!


The  main character in this book is Rachel, an 30 year old attorney living in New York. The actual story starts with the birthday party her best friend Darcy is throwing for her. That night, after far too many drinks, she ends up sleeping with Darcy's fiance, Dexter. And from then on, everything just gets complicated, seeing as Rachel and Dexter can't stop seeing each other.


This book is rather typical chick-lit, but that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it. It's pretty obvious that what Rachel and Dexter are doing is very wrong, but you can't help but feel happy for them when they manage to get together and when they talk. Darcy was the cheated one in this story, but I will admit to not liking her at all. She was really selfish and not a very nice character at all. She wanted everything and everyone to revolve around her and, frankly, she was a bit of a bitch.


From what I have found out, Emily Giffin has written a follow up to Something Borrowed, called Something Blue, which is about Darcy. Knowing me, I'll probably read it sometime soon, but I'm not THAT desperate!


All in all, Something Borrowed is some good chick-lit material. And I found it very easy to read!


Rating: 7/10


Author: 
Emily Giffin is an American author. She has a degree in law studies and actually practiced litigation with a law firm for a few years, before giving it all up and moving to London to try and make it as an author. She currently lives in Atlanta, having already published five bestselling novels.

Something Blue  |  Heart of the Matter

You can find out more about Emily Giffin and her books on her website. (which I think is really pretty!)

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011

Beyond Nostalgia by Tom Winton

Beyond Nostalgia by Tom Winton
First published by CreateSpace in 2011 (a pdf copy of this book was kindly provided to me by the author for review)


Description (from Goodreads):
Born with blue in his collar, not in his veins, Dean Cassidy chronicles his soul-scarring rise from New York's darkest alleys to a place somewhere nearer the top of his world. A human accomplishment as difficult as it is unlikely, his struggle is intensified by haunting memories of Theresa Wayman, his long-estranged teenage soul-mate.

Theresa!Theresa!Theresa! She just won't go away.

For five years after losing contact with her, Dean anesthetizes his pain with the same things that caused it - boozy nights and faceless women. Then he gets lucky again. He meets, and soon marries, Maddy Frances Ronan, a woman so giving (and forgiving) she deserves to be canonized.

Despite Dean’s many hang-ups and blunders, Maddy’s love for him never wavers. For two decades she endures all the jumped jobs, the time he goes postal, his frequent depressions and his ongoing anguish over the hostile corporate takeover of his and other American families. Even after she finds Dean unconscious, clutching a faded photograph of Theresa Wayman, she sticks by him.

But their problems don’t end there. There’s a green cloud, known as money, that forever casts shadows on their happiness. Even when Maddy and Dean’s two boys enter school and she takes on a job, there’s never enough. That is until the eleventh hour when things are looking their bleakest …......


My thoughts:
First off, I just noticed the description is sooo long! It does give a pretty good feel of the story, though it could probably do with being a little shorter. It didn't ruin the story for me in any way, but when I read it again after I finished reading the book, I realised how much information it gives away.


So, now, about the actual book! The story is cut into two parts: the first one is set in the time of Dean's youth, while the second takes place many years later, when Dean is in his forties. The first part is pretty much a romance story gone bad. Set in Manhattan, it's about how Dean and Theresa met, how the came to be in a relationship, what happened to end up with Theresa to be estranged from him. It really is a wonderfully described relationship, in which both characters are lovely. Probably because each on brings out the best in the other. You were expecting the relationship to go bad in many places, because of certain occurrences, but, no, Dean and Therese seemed to be able to weather it all. Until it went one step too far.


After that, we sort-of zoom through for a few years, until we get to the point where Dean meets Maddy Frances, and then, we fast-forward even more, until we get to the point where Dean and Maddy are in their forties.The story has a completely different tone to it, by this point. Dean seems mellower, but he still seems to be wallowing in self-pity for messing it up with Theresa so many years ago. Suddenly, Dean realises what he really wants to do with his life and sets out to give it a try. I am not going to say anything more from this part until the end of the book, because it was my favourite part in the whole book. Especially the last few chapters. There were times when I thought Dean was just going to go and do what I expected him to do, but, in the end didn't.


I found that I couldn't really sympathise with Dean. He seemed like a really weak person in quite a few parts of the book, especially during the second half. I do know that some people cannnot get over a break-up easily, but I do not understand people who live half a life for so many years, when they actually have such wonderful people (husbands/wives/children) next to them. 20 years seems like a very long time to still be waiting for your once-upon-a-time soulmate.


There were a couple of other things I didn't really like about this book, but they didn't have to do with the actual story, just the way it was written. The main one was the capitalisation of sentences when Dean was in a state or was involved in a fight with someone. I realise that Mr Winton's aim was to change the tone and make  Dean sound angry in those particular parts, but they seemed a little too much for me. The other thing I didn't like was the excessive use of the MF word. I wouldn't have minded it if it only surfaced a few times, but it seemed to come up every single time Dean was angry/sad.


All in all, it is a very well written book, telling the story of a man's first love and all the consequences of losing it.


Rating: 7/10


Author:
Tom Winton was born and raised in New York. Over the years he has held a great number of jobs, varying from postman to entrepreneur. He currently lives in Florida with his wife and his Jack Russell terrier, Ginger! He has written a considerable number of articles for newspapers and magazines, but Beyond Nostalgia is his first novel. (It is available for download from Amazon - .co.uk site  |  .com site). He is currently working on his second novel.


For more information, check out his website HERE.


Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011


(Disclaimer: I received a free pdf copy of this book from the author for review. It has not influenced my opinion in any way. Also, while I have linked to the two Amazon sites selling e-book copies of this book, I do not make any money out of it. The links are there just for information purposes.)

Specials (Uglies #3)

Specials by Scott Westerfeld
First published by Simon Pulse in 2006 (this edition by Simon & Schuster in 2010)


Book #3 in the Uglies series




Description: (from Goodreads)
Tally thought they were a rumor, but now she's one of them. A Special. A superamped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid.
But maybe being perfectly programmed with strength and focus isn't better than anything she's ever known. Tally still has memories of something else.
But it's easy for her to tune that out--until she's offered a chance to stamp out the rebels of the New Smoke permanently. It all comes down to one last choice: listen to that tiny, faint heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.

My thoughts:
When I started reading this book, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I had enjoyed Uglies a lot and was a little disappointed by the second book in the series, Pretties. Before I start stating my opinion of this book, I have to say that this review will contain spoilers for anyone who has not read the first two books in the series. Consider yourselves warned!

In this installment of the Uglies series, Tally has progressed yet another level and she is now a Special. But she's not even a regular one at that; she is a special brand of Special (?), a Cutter, a team created by Dr Cable and led by Shay (who we saw as a Special at the end of Pretties).

This book was a lot better than the previous one, but still, nowhere as good as Uglies. The plot was a lot more interesting and there were some completely different things going on, which I actually did not expect. One thing I liked a lot about this book was that there was mention of other cities in the world other than the ones Tally had lived in and knew about (Crumblyville, Uglyville and New Pretty Town). It made the world a lot more real and believable.

Though again, quite sadly I must say, I did not like Tally. She comes off as a particularly selfish and rather stupid person. At the beginning of the book, she just seems to do whatever Shay tells her to do and as the book progresses, even though she does seem to still be able to make decisions for herself, she is still not very likeable. Another thing I liked was that Zane was not really featured in this book. It might sound rather nasty of me, but I really did not like Zane's character and I believe that he is responsible for the ruination of Tally's character.

To end this review, I am going to make a comment about the ending of this book. I can't say I expected it to happen in the way it happened, so I was pleasantly surprised by it. Though I didn't really like the part where 4-5 weeks went by in the space of a couple of paragraphs. Even though the author felt there wasn't much to say about that period of time, it nevertheless felt like a big gap to me, as things were sure to have been happening.

Rating: 7/10


Author:
You can find out more about Scott Westerfeld at the end of my review of the first book in the series, Uglies.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
First published by Pan Books in 1979 (this edition by Pan Books in 2009)

Book #1 in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series




Description: (from Goodreads)
It's an ordinary Thursday lunchtime for Arthur Dent until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly afterwards to make way for a new hyperspace bypass and his best friend has just announced that he's an alien. At this moment, they're hurtling through space with nothing but their towels and an innocuous-looking book inscribed with the big, friendly words:

DON'T PANIC. 

The weekend has only just begun. 

This title is Volume One in the Trilogy of Five.

My thoughts:

The first time I ever heard of this book was when the film was made. I remember my friend Penny saying that she had watched the film and that she hadn't really liked it. (Then again, she grew up in America and doesn't particularly like British films, probably because of the accent. Fortunately, she likes me, despite my British accent!) Anyway, I stumbled upon this book in the bookshop a couple of years ago and decided to buy it as a present for my brother. It had been sitting on the bookshelf since the day after he opened his present. I only recently found the DVD for the film at my local video club and decided I wanted to try watching the film myself.

Well, I did and I ended up really enjoying the film! I thought the cast was great! Martin Freeman was really good in the role of Arthur Dent and I loved the voice of Alan Rickman as Marvin the Paranoid Android! But I'm not here to review the film. 

After watching the film, I decided to try reading the book. It's not a very long one after all. As is obvious from the blurb, this is the story of Arthur Dent, the only man to survive the demolition of the planet Earth, due to his friend Ford Prefect. In the book, we follow Arthur on his journey across the universe, a place he never expected he would be in. (Well, who would?)

This book really is a weird read. The story is great and it obviously required a great deal of imagination to come up with. The book is very funny in places. And that is not only because of the things that happen in the course of the story, but also because of the way the author chose to describe them. A few of my favourite parts in the book were the ones where we could read excerpts from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and the dialogues between Marvin the Paranoid Android and the rest of the characters! You could tell, from the words the author chose and from the way he formed the sentences that Marvin really was depressed (and with a very bad case of depression at that!). All the characters in this book were rather well developed (for a book that is not really that long) and I enjoyed that. 

The book does tend to lag in certain parts, with not much really happening, or just because of a certain dialogue or description going on for a little too long, but I didn't find it so bad that I couldn't carry on reading the book. I would like to add here that I think I enjoyed the book more having already seen the film. I feel that the director of the film did a fantastic job of recreating the world in the book. The images from the film kept coming to mind all the time while I was reading the book actually, making me laugh out at certain moments (which I might not have done had I not seen the film beforehand). All in all, I think I prefered the film to the book, which is not something that happens often.

Rating: 7/10

Author:

Douglas Noël Adams was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and musician. He is best known as the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. This series began on radio, and developed into a "trilogy" of five books (which sold more than fifteen million copies during his lifetime) as well as a television series, a comic book series, a computer game, and a feature film that was completed after Adams' death in 2001. His Trilogy of Five contains - other than The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - the following books:

• The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe
• Life, The Universe And Everything
• So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish
• Mostly Harmless

He also wrote two books in the Dirk Gently series. A posthumous collection of essays and other material, including an incomplete novel, was published as The Salmon of Doubt in 2002.

You can find out more about Douglas Adams and his books here:

Official Website

Wikipedia

Goodreads

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011, 1st In A Series Challenge

Pretties

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
First published by Simon Pulse in 2005 (this edition by Simon & Schuster in 2010)

Book #2 in the Uglies series





Description: (from back cover)
Tally has finally become Pretty. Now her looks are beyond perfect, her clothes cool, her boyfriend totally gorgeous, and she's completely popular. It's everything she's ever wanted.
But beneath all the fun - the non-stop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom - is the nagging sense that something is very wrong. Something important. Then a message from Tally's Ugly past arrives. Reading it, Tally remembers what's wrong with Pretty life, and the fun stops cold. Now she has to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and fighting for her life...


Opinions:
Pretties is the second book in the Uglies series. I read and reviewed the first book in the series, Uglies, earlier this year (you can find my review here). I really enjoyed reading Uglies (hence the 9/10), so I ordered Pretties and Specials straight away, so that I could read them as soon as possible. They ended up taking a month to get here...

To review this book, I obviously have to mention things that happened in the first book, so if you haven't read Uglies, then read at your own risk. (That sounds rather ominous, doesn't it!)

In Uglies, Tally desperately wanted to become a Pretty. But her friend Shay ran away and she was sent by the Special Circumstances to look for her. She ended up living in the Smoke for some time, but then circumstances forced her to return and give herself up to become a Pretty. I'm not going to say more than that, just in case you have decided to read on. I'm not going to spoil the book completely for you!

This book starts off with Tally as a Pretty, who lives a wonderfully carefree life, goes to parties, is either drunk or hungover. On that first night, she is getting ready to go to a costume party, where she is going to be judged.  So it can be decided whether she will become a part of the Crim gang. But then something happens. Something which she agreed to do, but cannot remember doing so. She decides to trust herself anyway (she reads a note she wrote herself, at the end of the first book) and just go for it. This obviously ends up leading to a big adventure for Tally, as well as some of her fellow Crims, and most importantly her boyfriend.

I have to say, I was rather dissapointed. I did not love this book as much as I loved the first one. First and foremost, the style of writing rather annoyed me. I know he was doing it on purpose, as he wanted to show us the airy-headedness (yes, I think that's a word) of the Pretties. But it just ended up being annoying. I mean, come on: Tally-wa and Shay-la...??? Those were bad enough, but then came the worst: Zane-la... (note: Zane is a boy)

Other than that, the story was ok. It had adventure, as well as some other elements that I did not expect. Though I didn't really like Tally as much in this book, to be honest. It seemed as if the Pretty surgery had taken something away from her spunk. She was still mischievous and troublemaking, but there was also something missing. Another character I really didn't like was Zane. I know he was a good guy, but I just could not like him, even though he goes through a lot in this book. I suppose it just interfered with my dream of Tally and David's relationship progressing, despite Tally becoming a Pretty... Ah well... We'll have to see what happens in Specials.

All in all, it was a good book, but, for me, it was definitely inferior to Uglies.

Rating: 6/10

Author:
You can find out more about Scott Westerfeld at the end of my Uglies review, which you can find here!

Counts as Book #30 in my 100 Books In A Year Challenge. 

Also counts towards my 2nds Challenge and the Dystopia Challenge.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

I had actually never read this book, when I noticed this book in a bookshop for only 4 euros. I only just got round to reading it though, so here is my review.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by R. L. Stevenson
First published by Longmans, Green & Co. in 1886 (this edition by HarperPress in 2010)






Description: (from back cover)

'All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil.'

After taking an elixir created in his laboratory, mild mannered Dr Jekyll is transformed into the cruel and despicable Mr Hyde. Although seemingly harmless at first, things soon descend into chaos and Jekyll quickly realises there is only one way to stop Hyde. Stevenson's quintessential novella of the Victorian era epitomizes the conflict between psychology, science and religious morality, but is fundamentally a triumphant study of the duality of human nature.


Opinions:
I kept hearing about this story for years and years, but only vaguely knew what it was about. I can honestly say that having now read the book, it wasn't really what I was expecting.


We all know the basic plot. We have one man, Dr Jekyll, who drinks some sort of potion he makes and is promptly transformed into Mr Hyde. The difference between these two men is not limited to their appearance, but goes as far as their actual character. Dr Jekyll is described as a mild mannered man, whereas Mr Hyde is said to be evil personified (or maybe that's too harsh). He seems to repel each and every character in the book.


I don't know why, but I remember that, at some point, I used to think that Dr Jekyll was the evil one and Mr Hyde the good one. I was a little embarrassed when someone pointed out that it was the opposite. Though I think that my assumption that Dr Jekyll was the evil one came from the fact that he is a doctor (just like Frankenstein, who created his monster).


I don't want to spoil the book, so I can't really get into many details. The book is less than 100 pages long, so I have to be careful not to give any information away that could potentially ruin the book for someone who has not yet read it. The book is told in the third person, through the eyes of the people in the immediate circle of Dr Jekyll or through letters. This actually gives it an air of mystery, as everyone has a view of what is going on, but have no means of knowing why each thing is happening.


The story actually want to show the duality of human nature. Dr Jekyll stands for the good part in a person, whereas Mr Hyde stands for the evil part of the same person. Thus, Hyde really acts like a mask, behind which Jekyll is free to do anything he wants. One thing that stood out (to me) was the fact that Dr Jekyll is described as a tall and healthy man, with a pleasant face, but Mr Hyde is presented as a man of short stature and looks that make people want to look away from him. I always imagined Hyde as a tall, muscular sort of fellow, who was probably a bit of a bully because of his size. So I was quite surprised to see that was not the case.


All in all, it was a good book, if a little short. I think it could have done with a little more development and it wouldn't have been at all tiring. I liked the setting of the book and the message it was trying to get across. A book that people should read. I, for one, think I should have read this book years ago. It's not really scary. It's more mysterious, really. So, just go read it if you haven't!


Rating: 7/10


Author:
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish poet and novelist and is regarded as a leading representative of Neo-romanticism in English literature. He was greatly admired by many well-known authors, such as Jorge Luis Borges, Rudyard Kipling, Vladimir Nabokov and Ernest Hemingway. He published his first book at the age of 33 and died of an apparent cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 44. During his relatively few years of writing, he managed to write an impressive number of novels, short stories, poetry and travel writing, a list of which you can find HERE.
His most well-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Counts as Book #28 in my 100 Books In A Year Challenge and as Book #14 in my British Books Challenge 2011!

Also counts toward the Victorian Literature Challenge.