Book review: Manifest by Artist Arthur

My summary:

Krystal is 15; her parents recently split up and Krystal now lives together with her mum and stepdad in small town where her mother spent her childhood. Krystal is very depressed and is longing to see her dad, in the belief that everything will be ok once she is with him.

Weird things happen to Krystal and she has to make some choices besides sitting in her room all day feeling sorry for her self. Krystal can see and her ghosts and one of them needs her assistance. Actually this kind of thing has happened to Krystal when she was younger but she denied it ever happened and pushed away the memories. At school two weird kids is trying to persuade Krystal that they need to have a talk, it looks like Krystal isn’t the only gifted kid in her high school.

A storm is coming and both the power and the dangers lurking in the dark seem to increase with the weather.

My thoughts:

Manifest is the first book in the Mystyx series, I cannot say that I fell in love with this first book but I throughly enjoy it. I mean with ingredients like mysterious new friends, dark creepy fog, supernatural powers, a couple ghosts and a first kiss that will give you the feeling of butterfly-wings in your 15 year old stomach - what's not to like?

The writing doesn't always flow all that easy due to too much and confusing weather information at times. That being said Artist Arthur did a great job creating creepy scenes that made me feel a little chill down my spine, that happened more than once actually.

The main character Krystal is just too depressed to care about anything, and understandably so, but she just annoyed me so much at times. Luckily that changed during the story but I prefer to have a good relationship with the MC from the very beginning of a book.

Krystal had people issues but all of the sudden she had somehow connected with two of her fellow students of the supernatural kind, Jake and Sasha. That made me wonder if I've missed something in the story where the characters bonded, it felt a bit unrealistic(same goes for the the part where she thought she fell in love with a ghost). Still I somehow managed to look past this and the author did a good job with the plot and managed to keep me interested in the story.

The next book in the series Mystify(Mystyx #2) will be released January 25^th 2011, the main character in this novel will be one of Krystal's friends, Sasha. I've heard rumors that the next book is even better :)

The Book trailer:

The cover:
It's very pretty plus I like that they have added Krystal's special mark.

My rating of this book:

3 stars out of 5

Want a second opinion? Check out these reviews written by some of my book blogging friends:
Marie Loves Books
Giving Reading a Chance
Bookworming in the 21st Century 
Book Rat

Want to know more?
Visit Artist Arthur's homepage

Follow Artist on Twitter

Add Manifest(Mystyx #1) to your Goodreads shelf

Manifest(Mystyx #1) by Artist Arthur
Published: August 2010
Pages(hardcover):  256
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
ISBN: 037383196X (ISBN13: 9780373831968)
Full disclosure: ARC received from Harlequin via NetGalley. 

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.  

Cryer's Cross - Waiting on Wednesday

Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann. Release date: February 8th 2011. Published by Simon Pulse.

Why am I pining for Cryer's Cross?

I enjoy reading a good YA suspense/thriller plus I've never read any thing by Lisa McMann before and Cryer's Cross sounds like a good place to start. I'm also very curious to read a book where the main character has OCD.

Synopsis(borrowed from the publishers website):

The small town of Cryer's Cross is rocked by tragedy when an unassuming freshman disappears without a trace. Kendall Fletcher wasn't that friendly with the missing girl, but the angst wreaks havoc on her OCD-addled brain. 

When a second student goes missing—someone close to Kendall's heart—the community is in an uproar. Caught in a downward spiral of fear and anxiety, Kendall's not sure she can hold it together. When she starts hearing the voices of the missing, calling out to her and pleading for help, she fears she's losing her grip on reality. But when she finds messages scratched in a desk at school—messages that could only be from the missing student who used to sit there—Kendall decides that crazy or not, she'd never forgive herself if she didn't act on her suspicions. 

Something's not right in Cryer's Cross—and Kendall's about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried.

Listen to Lisa McMann talk about Cryer's Cross:

Want to know more about the author or the book?

Visit Lisa McMann's homepage

Follow Lisa on Twitter

Check out Lisa's blog

Check out Lisa's fanpage on Facebook

Add Cryer's Cross to your Goodreads shelf

What are you waiting for this week?

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This event spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. Please visit Jill's blog to find out what other book bloggers are waiting for.

Manifest - Teaser Tuesday

This weeks teasers is brought to you from Manifest by Artist Arthur, Kindle location 2544:

The more I think about the fact that I actually was jealous at seeing two ghosts together, the more I feel sick. Maybe I need to be medicated or, worse, sent to a mental institution.

Oh boy, I have to say that this main character needs some guidance and someone to talk to. She's just so mad at the world, but I guess I would have been too if my parents divorced, almost out of the blue, when I was 15 and I was forced to live with my mother and her new lover.

MizB of Should Be Reading host this meme called Teaser Tuesday . 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 and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Book review: Butterflies in May by Karen Hart

My summary:

Ali Parker is 17; she is a responsible high school student and the editor of the schools newspaper. This year she got a boyfriend, Matt, who is just wonderful, almost the perfect boyfriend. Ali and Matt are planning their future, they both want to go to college; he wants to study art and she wants to study journalism. Their biggest problem is which colleges to apply to.

One day Ali finds out that she is pregnant, a discovery that will change hers and Matt’s life forever no matter what she chooses.  Ali is set on abortion and to carry on with her life as normal after the procedure. Is it really that easy? Ali has other options but she doesn't feel like even considering them.

My thoughts:

Butterflies in May were an excellent novel about becoming pregnant as a teenager. Even though this is fiction it is very informative, in a non boring way, and will give young adults a lot to think about. I would recommend this novel to be read by both genders, as I think this is a story all could benefit from reading. I also think this novel would be a nice read for parents. No one would like their seventeen year old to become a parent but if one is faced with the situation then it is important to try and look at the situation from ones daughter or sons point of view. Don’t forget that this is really hard on your kid and be supportive; trying to take the decision for your child is only going to push them away.

The characters in this novel felt so real and down to earth that it wasn’t hard to relate to their reactions. The author has managed something great her, even the smallest of the characters gives this novel extra depth and the story wouldn’t be the same if one removed any of them from the story. Some of the characters let me down, hard, but that’s because the author did such a great job creating them.

The main character, Ali, had such a difficult road to walk. Her decisions weren’t perfect but she tried to make the best out of her situation. It did lead her into some extra trouble along the way but she stood up for what she believed was right and didn’t let anyone force her into something she didn’t want to. Ali had wonderful support from her best friend, Monica, who I thought was a wonderful character and some of her family members as well.

Author Karen Hart doesn’t sugarcoat teenage pregnancy but neither does she paint it all black, the writing is realistic and it will go straight to your heart. The author doesn’t tell anyone what to do, she simply writes about the options regardless of people’s political point of view or religion.

The cover:

Looks like something from the 90’s and it feels out of date, it could really use a cover remake. Many of us judge a book by its cover, even if we know it’s not right to do so, and this is a wonderful and heartbreaking read that deserves to find lot’s of new readers regardless of the cover.

My rating of this book:

4 stars out of 5

Want a second opinion? Check out these reviews written by some of my book blogging friends:

J’adorehappyendings

Want to know more?
Read more about the book and the author(+ interesting interview) here
 Add Butterflies in May to your Goodreads shelf

Butterflies in May by Karen Hart

Published:  2006
Pages(hardcover):  210
Publisher: Bankcroft Press
ISBN: 1890862444 (ISBN13: 9781890862442)
Full disclosure: ARC received from Bankcroft Press via NetGalley. 

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.  

My Norwegian Christmas - Merry Christmas!

It's not Christmas without Disney and Jiminy Cricket(in English with Norwegian subtitles).

Today (December 24th) is the day we celebrate Christmas here in Norway and I thought I might write a bit about my family's Christmas traditions. 

First of all a short lesson in Norwegian: "Merry Christmas" is "God jul" and "Santa" is "Nisse" in Norwegian. Good to know, right? ;)

I'm like a child I still love Christmas just as much as when I was a little girl. In our home we never start decorating for Christmas until the 22 or 23rd December, usually the latter and we do not take away the decorations until the 13th day of Christmas. That is an old Norwegian tradition, I know lots of people start decorating these days on the 1st of December but that is way to early for me.

When I was living at home I used to get up after midnight on the 24th with my younger sister and brother and we would tiptoe downstairs and watch the beautiful Christmas tree and of course we couldn't resist squeezing a bit on some of the gifts with our names on it. These days I have a family of our own and we do not keep the Christmas lights on at night, due to the danger of fire, I think it is so sad but better safe then sorry. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is turning on the Christmas lights.

Three Wishes for Cinderella(not a great trailer but the best one I could find):

We usually start out our day with a family breakfast and then we watch traditional Christmas cartoons on TV. Then we might venture out to deliver the last of the Christmas presents to our closest family members. Only thing is that I HAVE to be home at 11 AM to watch Three Wishes for Cinderella. The one year I didn't get a chance to see it I never got quite into the right kind of Christmas spirit, it is such a romantic and wonderful story. It is actually an old Czechoslovakian movie that somehow has become a part of the Christmas traditions here in Norway and the state channel airs the movie every Christmas Eve. It's been dubbed into Norwegian and one man does all the voices, it is laughable really but it is a tradition. They once tried to send a version with multiple voices but that was never a hit with the audience so the had to go back to the version with one man as all the characters. Has anyone of you seen this movie? 

The barn gnome(we call it Fjøsnisse)

In the middle of the day we usually go to my parents to eat rice porridge. Usually there is hidden an almond in the porridge and the one who get's the almond receives a little gift, usually a marzipan pig covered with chocolate. After we're done we go out to the barn with our son and set out a bowl of porridge there for the barn gnome. This is an old tradition, before some believed that little Santas was living on the farms, helping out and caring for sick animals. This year I'm planning on placing a Santa hat somewhere to make it a little more exiting. 

About 5-6 PM we eat Christmas dinner consisting of  roast pork rib(which we call "ribbe" in Norwegian) with lovely crispy rind, Christmas sausage(made of pork), boiled potatoes, large meatballs, sauerkraut, red cabbage, brown saus, gravy, lingonberry jam and pickled cucumber. You chose what you like and just dig in. For dessert many people use the rest of the rice porridge they ate earlier that day mixes it with sweet cream and serve it with red saus. We always eat that at my parent-in-laws but at home the past years we have eaten fruit salad and ice cream.

What kind of traditional meal one serves on Christmas Eve here in Norway may vary a bit from where one comes from in the country; some eat ribs of lamb and others have a tradition of eating lutefisk.

Christmas dessert: Rice pudding with red saus

After dinner and dessert comes the tradition I love the most. The entire family gathers in a large circle around the Christmas tree and hold hands, we walk around the tree and we sing Christmas carols. After awhile, it happens when we sing a special song about Santa; Santa appears in our living room with his sack filled with gifts. Of course the tradition is for the children, not me really LOL but I still like it, I just love looking at our sons face when Santa comes into the living room and starts giving out gifts. Our son is only five and he still believes in Santa and I for one will not be the one crushing his dream and telling him that Santa isn't real. I guess he'll figure out sooner or later on his own.

When we have opened the gifts we usually just chat and enjoy each others company (the kids playing with their gifts) while we eat some snacks and fruit, perhaps have a coffee or tea. And that my friends is how we celebrate Christmas Eve in our family.

I wish each and every one of you a merry Christmas! 

If you're interested in reading more about different Christmas traditions do check out my book blogging friend Blodeuedd's traditional Christmas post. There you can read about Christmas traditions in Finland.

 

Winners of Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

I almost forgot to announce the winners.. Random.org picked out three numbers for me and the winners are:

Sharli 

Nina

Eirin D.

Congratulations girls! The winners have all been notified by email :)

Book review: It started with a dare by Lindsay Faith Rech

My summary:

CJ Silverman has just moved from Philly to a small town called Beaubridge. Being a new student can be tough when you’re in high school but CJ can hardly believe her luck, one of the first people that speak to her is the most popular girl in school. CJ dreams of being popular and accepted and she is prepared to work hard to fulfill her dreams. It all starts with a game of truth, dare or torture and CJ’s soon in over her head.

My thoughts:

It Started With a Dare was a novel addressing serious subjects and at the same time it was packed with laugh out loud moments, I really enjoyed the ride. Mrs. Rech writes about serious topics in a way that enables you to laugh at the same time that you know that this is serious matters she addresses. We have subjects like how difficult it can be to fit in, how easy it can be to tell lies to be accepted, romance, teenage drama, eating disorder, friendship and dysfunctional families, you name it It Started With a Dare got it.

I’m usually not a big fan of characters that lies and at some point of the book the main character, CJ’s, actions made me feel uncomfortable.  Why not stop to think about the consequences? At the same time I could understand her, when CJ first started lying, with a hope of becoming friends with the most popular girl in school, it only went from bad to worse and it seemed like it was impossible to stop. But at least she was with the in-crowed.  Still CJ was a witty and likable character and she had a nice character development throughout the book. It’s not easy being 15-16, in a new place and trying to figure out who you really are.

One of my favorite characters in the story was one of the mean girls named Grace We mustn’t forget that people often say hurtful things or does mean things to others because they have some serious issues with their own person (not that it’s alright for people to hurt others because they hurt themselves but I think you get my drift).

The cover:

Cute but I would have wished for it to be a more in the spirit of the main character.

My rating of this book:

3,5 stars out of 5

Want a second opinion? Check out these reviews written by some of my book blogging friends:

I can’t remember to have read any reviews of this book by any of the bloggers I follow. If I have somehow overseen your review then please leave a comment with a link and I’ll add a link to your review here.

Want to know more?
Visit Lindsay Faith Rech's homepage

Follow Lindsay on Twitter

Add Lindsay on Facebook

Add It started With a Dare to your Goodreads shelf

It Started With a Dare by Lindsay Faith Rech

Published:  September 2010
Pages(hardcover):  312
Publisher: Graphia
ISBN: 0547235585 (ISBN13: 9780547235585)
Full disclosure: ARC received from Graphia(a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt imprint) via NetGalley. 

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.  

Deadly - Waiting on Wednesday

Deadly by Julie Chibbaro. Release date: February 22nd 2011. Published by Atheneum.

Why am I pining for Deadly?

I'm not really sure that I ought to pine for Deadly, it is guaranteed to make me scrub my hands even more than I already do. Still I think it sounds like a good book and history and medicine is both subjects that fascinate me.

Synopsis(borrowed from Goodreads):

A mysterious outbreak of typhoid fever is sweeping New York. Could the city’s future rest with its most unlikely scientist? If Prudence Galewski is ever going to get out of Mrs. Browning’s esteemed School for Girls, she must demonstrate her refinement and charm by securing a job appropriate for a young lady. But Prudence isn’t like the other girls. She is fascinated by how the human body works and why it fails. With a stroke of luck, she lands a position in a laboratory, where she is swept into an investigation of the fever bound to change medical history. Prudence quickly learns that an inquiry of this proportion is not confined to the lab. From ritzy mansions to shady bars and rundown tenements, she explores every potential cause of the disease. But there’s no answer in sight—until the volatile Mary Mallon emerges. Dubbed “Typhoid Mary” by the press, Mary is an Irish immigrant who has worked as a cook in every home the fever has ravaged. Strangely, though, she hasn’t been sick a day in her life. Is the accusation against her an act of discrimination? Or is she the first clue in a new scientific discovery? Prudence is determined to find out. In a time when science is for men, she’ll have to prove to the city, and to herself, that she can help solve one of the greatest medical mysteries of the twentieth century.

Listen to Julie Chibbaro read and discuss Deadly:

Want to know more about the author or the book?

Visit Julie Chibbaro's homepage

Follow Julie on Twitter

Check out Deadly's own Facebook page

Add Deadly to your Goodreads shelf

What are you waiting for this week?

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This event spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. Please visit Jill's blog to find out what other book bloggers are waiting for.

The Lying Game - Teaser Tuesday

This weeks teasers is brought to you from The Lying Game by Sarah Shepard, Kindle location 2659:

The girl didn’t seem to hear me. She stumbled forward, her face covered in shadows.

“Hello?” I cried, climbing out of the tub. She didn’t look over. “Are you deaf?” Nothing. She pumped a bottle of lavender-scented lotion and rubbed it on her arms.

Ok, so this is actually the book I reviewed yesterday but I thought it was so good that I wanted to share a teaser from it. I read this book in just two days, that is pretty fast for me these days :)

MizB of Should Be Reading host this meme called Teaser Tuesday . 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 and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Book review: The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

My summary:

Sutton Mercer has a life anyone would kill for, and then someone actually does kill her. Sutton wakes up in an unknown bathroom without any memory of how she got there, a girl steps in but she doesn’t even register that Sutton already is in there. No wonder, since Sutton is a ghost. When Sutton looks at the girls reflection she screams, the girl looks exactly like Sutton. The girl in the bathroom is Emma Paxton, Sutton’s unknown twin.

Emma lives in a foster home and her foster brother, Travis, is out to get her. Travis has found a disturbing video on YouTube starring Emma, only it’s not Emma, but how can she prove it? She never dreamed that she had a sibling. Emma gets in touch with her sister and arranges a meeting, only thing is that Sutton is dead, so who has agreed to meet up with Emma. Emma is lured into a trap and everyone around her thinks she is Sutton. A highly dangerous game is on, can she pass as her sister. Who killed Sutton? It could be anyone Sutton knew and soon it becomes apparent that the killer keeps a close eye on Emma’s every move.  

My thoughts:

The Lying Game was such a suspenseful and dramatic read. I didn’t quite know what to expect from Sara Shepard since this was my very first Shepard. But WOW I was like an addict from the first page; I just kept craving more and more. I wasn’t actually aware that The Lying Game was the first book in a tetralogy(yes, I just learned a new word, that means there will be four books) so I was a bit surprised when I understood that there was just to few pages left to unravel the whole mystery.

We get to follow both Sutton and Emma through a couple of dramatic weeks. Sutton’s thoughts and memories are being told from 1^st POV and Emma’s from 3^rd POV. Sara has created to very distinct characters with the twins, they are so different. Emma has always striven to please her, various, foster parents and to fit in, Sutton was spoiled, the ringleader among her friends and the center of attention. the ghost’s, We get to know Emma and Sutton, their identical twins but none of them knew that the other person existed.

The author certainly has a knack for writing mysteries, the reader will experience a bit of paranoia while reading this book. Every single person Emma hangs out with while posing as Sutton could turn out to be the culprit.

At the very end there was an epilogue, to me it felt unnecessary. I’m not to fond of the feeling of being underestimated as a reader, I don’t need an epilogue to list the loose threads and pointing out to me what I wish to know during the next installments in The Lying Games series. This was just a minor flaw for me other than that this was a superb read.

The next installment, Never Have I Ever, is due out in April 2011 and I can hardly wait to find out what happens next. My list of favorite authors has grown and I most definitely have to check out Sara Shepard’s other novels (like the Pretty Little Liars novels which I’ve heard such great thing about). If the rest of her books is anything near as good as this one I have many hours of good entertainment in front of me.

Listen to Sara Shepard talk about The Lying Game:

The cover:

Fitting.

My rating of this book:

4.5 stars out of 5

Want a second opinion? Check out these reviews written by some of my book blogging friends:

I Like These Books

La Femme Readers
Pure Imagination

J’adorehappyendings

Lauren’s Crammed Bookshelf

Want to know more?
Visit HarperTeen's homepage for The Lying game series

Follow Sara Shepard on Twitter

Add Sara on Facebook

Add The Lying Game to your Goodreads shelf

The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

Published: December 7^th 2010
Pages(hardcover – I read the Kindle version):  307
Publisher: HarperTeen
ISBN: 0061869708 (ISBN13: 9780061869709)
Full disclosure: ARC received from HarperTeen via NetGalley. 

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.