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Book review: Let it Snow

Let it Snow is as it says on the cover a book filled with three holiday romances. I knew this was three different stories by three different authors but I didn't know that the stories were all connected. This was a positive surprise and made the book more coherent. I wondered in the first story about a certain character that was introduced but played almost no part. This particular character shows up again in the last story where his part is more essential. The stories take place in Gracetown where a big storm makes people who never would have met otherwise to cross paths. It all starts with Jubilee deciding to leave her stranded train to get som warmth:

The Jubilee Express by Maureen Johnson:
Jubilee (yes, that's her name) is about to go over to her boyfriend's house for Christmas lunch when their lawyer neighbour rings the doorbell with some bad news. Her parents are in jail (!) and will not make it home for Christmas so she has to pack her bag and get on a long train trip to her grandparents in Florida. She thinks her Christmas and maybe her life is ruined but the trip is going to make her take a look at her perfect life and see that maybe it's not all that perfect for her. I wasn't a great fan of Maureen Johnson's The Name og the Star even though I liked the storyline. I find this short story to be both cute and funny and it makes me want to read more by Johnson. The characters are believeable and I really sympathize with our main character Jubilee. There are also some fun minor characters like the boy Stuart's mother.

A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle by John Green:
I am a big fan of Green's The Fault in Our Stars and his name on the cover of this book in combination with the fact that it is Christmas is what made me read this book. Even though this is not as good as the book mentioned I also liked this story and I recognize Green's writing. Three friends, Angie, called the Duke, Tobin and JP are together for a night of James Bond-movies when they get a call from the local Waffle House where their friend Keun works. He says they have to come down because the Waffle House has been miraculously invaded by a bunch of cheerleaders. The two boys are eager and the Duke gets persuaded by the thought of hash browns (what is that excactly?) which she just can't resist. The only problem is that the roads are filled with snow and there are only room for one of the Waffle House employees friends, so it's important to be the first ones there. The race to the Waffle House makes this story exciting and up-tempo and Green's writing makes the journey a lot of fun.

The Patron of Pigs by Lauren Myracle:
Addie made a big mistake, cheats on her boyfriend and is now heartbroken. Her friends try to comfort her but she seems to be all wrapped up in self pity. When her friend Tegan is prevented from picking up her new teacup pig (!) Addie decides to step up and help her. On Goodreads I could see that many readers enjoyed this story the least of the three but I liked it. It is not as funny as the other two and the main character not as likable, but it is the story with most Christmas spirit. Part of the story is for Addie to realize that maybe she's a tad self-absorbed and needs to put other people's feeling in consideration more often. In that way it's a very classical Christmas story, because as in A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful life, Addie meets someone who helps her see what she can do better and how she influence other people. It also contains several references to It's a Wonderful Life (which I haven't seen by the way).

To sum up this book as a whole, I thought it was a very cute read. I really liked how the three stories were tied together and you got to meet characters from a previous story again. The problem with short stories is often that it is very difficult to create a good story, get to know the characters and so on in a short amount of pages. In this case each writer gets about 100 pages each so it's not that short, and that the parts are tied together makes it feel like a book about the residents of Gracetown instead of three different stories. It still doesn't give you a deep knowledge of any of the characters or relationships, so even though I did enjoy the book a lot it is not much more than three very cute and funny tales and that's alright for Christmas. So with this I wish you all a merry Christmas filled with romance, friendship, family and a lot of fun:-)


My rating:



Source:
Checked out at the school library

Book Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

When I first read the small blurb and saw the trailer I was very excited to get my hands on a copy of this book. I had high expectations, which may have influenced the way I think about Juliette's story. Even though I enjoyed reading it, it did not live up to my expectations.

 

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war– and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

Juliette's touch is lethal power. Her life has always existed of lonelines and pain, not even her parents dared to love her. Instead, they sent her away to be locked up in an institution. Until The Reestablishment has other plans with her.

“My life is four walls of missed opportunities poured in concrete molds.”

The concept Tahereh Mafi created was astonishing and new. The setting, however, felt unreal and boring.
Mafi's writing style was certainly mesmerizing: a flood of metaphors drowning you in words.
At first I liked the creativity of it, read sentences over and over again, amazed by the simple beauty Mafi had folded into words of spring. However, it was simply too much. Knowing you have 300 pages to go, filled with beings comprised of letters, is harsh. As you may already have noticed.

“Hope is a pocket of possibility.
I'm holding it in my hand.”

Hope. There was a lot of hope in this book. The thing I didn't like about Juliette is that she didn't do anything to realise that hope. She followed the villain, Warner, in almost anything he asked her too. Where Juliette is a tool of power, a weapon in a war, she doesn't know how to fight for herself.
Luckily, she has her own hero. Adam, who has been in love with her since he was a little boy. It didn't matter that they had never actually talked. Adam is a genuinly likeable character, I have to admit that. The way he protects Juliette and how he cares for his brother got to me. It's simply his unrealistic romance with Juliette that makes me this bitter.
He has been Juliette's hope since she was still a rose bud, before she unfolded her petals and became the center of male attention.
Because, unsurprisingly, there's another male character who fell in love with our heroine before he had even met her. Warner, our villain, is obsessed with this human monster. After he has finally caught her in his web he reels her in to keep her close to his heart.
Where I liked Adam, I loved Warner. Warner might not be a typical villain, he certainly is evil. His education taught him to be cold, calculating. He was raised a killer. Even the way he obsesses about Juliette and declares her his love didn't ruin him for me. It fits him.
“His smile is laced with dynamite. "Go to sleep"
"Go to hell."
He works his jaw. Walks to the door. "I'm working on it.”

It's the little things that made me doubt this book, but I most certainly will be reading the next books in the series. Other little things made me love this book: James and Kenji, the moments of brilliance, the raw hope at Omega Point.
The discovery of Omega Point and the fury of the Reestablishment promise a rather interesting Unravel Me. I just hope Tahereh will use her talent in a different way. Because she is a gifted writer with great potential.

My rating of this book

Source

E-book copy.

Other links

Find this book on Goodreads

Visit Tahereh Mafi's website here
Tahereh Mafi's blog. It's pretty hilarious.

~ Sylke

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Book review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

If aliens one day enter my home to empty my bookshelf Code Name Verity is one of the books I will hold on to for dear life. I will fight the aliens with every fiber in my being, that's how much I loved Code Name Verity. This is book will be high on my Top 10 Reads list for 2012, I loved to bits and if you don't pick it up soon then you're in danger of missing out, BIG TIME.

I love this cover, it says so much about the story.

No spoilers

The setting for Code Name Verity is France (and partly England) during WWII. It is a story about female friendship, adventure and women/girls with rather unusual occupations during the war (spy, pilot and mechanic). And that my friend is about all I can tell you about this wonderful story. Why so little you say? Well my dear friend for me to answer that question I need you to answer this question: Have you ever read a book where the whole story will fall apart if you reveal the slightest thing about it? If you have then you know how hard it has been for me to write up this review. There is so much I'm longing to talk about but I cannot  bear the idea of spoiling this amazing story to new readers.

It’s like being in love, discovering your best friend.
A beautiful quote on friendship from Code Name Verity.

Female spies and pilots

Code Name Verity is an epistolary novel(see I learned myself a new word, yaaay), that means the story is being told through letters and diary entries. Our narrator is a young lady imprisoned by the Germans in France. The story changes between being told from a 1st POV and 3rd POV and it works surprisingly.

Our dearest narrator has a bleak future ahead of her, as she is labeled a Night and Fog(Nacht und Nebel)prisoner, that usually means prisoners who disappear into thin air and is never seen or heard from ever again. The narrator is well aware of this and she swaps whatever she can for the chance of a longer life, even if that means turning traitor.

I am no longer afraid of getting old.
Indeed I can't believe I ever said anything so stupid. So childish. So offensive and arrogant.
But mainly, so very, very stupid. I desperately want to grow old.
From Code Name Verity.

A puzzle or a crossword

This book is like a puzzle or a crossword and we all know how freaking annoying it is when you're this close to the solution and someone looks over your shoulder and gives you the correct answer. Author Elizabeth Wein has sprinkled her story with some very nicely hidden hints for the outfall of this story and I couldn't connect the dots at all until she spelled it out for me. Well done you! I love stories that keep me guessing until the very end and when it's revealed I could almost smack myself for not understanding what was going on before my very eyes earlier.

Code Name Verity might all sound very confusing, but I promise you that it is not. On the surface the story is well put together, there is no holes there but there is secrets there that you just cannot see before the author spills it.

This is a story that is perfect for rereading, it is not necessary but I'm willing to bet that I'll discover a whole new story the second time around. The first time I devoured the book, the second time I'll take my sweet time and discover all the little clues that was hidden for me the first time. I'm not much of a rereading kind of gal' but for this one I'm willing to make an exception. 

I am a coward.
I wanted to be heroic and I pretended I was. I have always been good at pretending.
Quote from Code Name Verity.

Credible

The main character is living on borrowed time, as long as she writes, she lives. The MC, I cannot name her, read the book and you'll understand why, does the unthinkable and becomes a traitor. It might seem a bit unrealistic that the soldiers doesn't just torture the information out of our MC spy, but to believe in this story this was just something I had to accept. This situation is made credible due to the fact that author Elizabeth Wein makes all her characters are human and complex, even the enemy has his weak spots . Very few of the characters, if any, is portrayed as just good or just bad.

Book trailer

Code Name Verity is fiction and at first glance one might believe there to be some historical errors in this novel. If you take a closer look at the information that exists in this novel you might be surprised to learn that some of the things that sounds unreal actually was very real. The things that aren't historical correct is being explained in an authors note at the very end(I learned some interesting facts in this note and I recommend that you read it if you ever read the book) and I think she has done a wonderful job writing about things that very well could have happened during WWII.


This story is both beautiful and heartbreaking and I L O V E it DEARLY! The story will appeal to young and old alike, especially women as this is also a story about strong women and friendship.


Did you know?
That 166 female pilots flew for the ATA during WWII?
15 of these 166 women died on the job.
The ATA pilots mission was to transport planes from one place to another and sometimes they also flew passengers.

That the ATA allowed disabled pilots to fly?
It didn't matter if you missed an arm or an eye, ff you could fly safely the ATA needed your help.

That a female pilot needed twice as many pilot lessons as a male pilot before they were allowed to fly on their own?

Well... look at all the lines I managed to use when I could have said it in such a simple way; I loved Code Name Verity. You don't want to miss out on this one.

This cover is just not to my liking at all. Looks more like a book in
the same genre as 50 Shades, which Code Name Verity most definitely is not.

Have you read Code Name Verity, if so did you enjoy it as much as I did? If not is it at least on your wishlist?

I purchased the audiobook from Audible. En innbundet utgave er på vei hjem til meg også, jeg må ha en fysisk kopi i bokhyllen.

I HAVE TOLD THE TRUTH! And for those of you who has read this novel already you know what I mean.

Release by Nicole Hadaway

“The ends justify the means”...

For vampire Miranda Dandridge, using her supernatural abilities to rescue children from impossible circumstances is her means to be a part of the human world that she loves so much, despite the atrocities of WWII.

For doctor Ben Gongliewski, saving his fellow Jews from the horrific death camps is an end for which he risks his own life every day, hiding his Jewish heritage while feigning loyalty the SS.

Neither Miranda nor Ben expects to find love in World War II Europe, but that is exactly what happens as they work for the Resistance. When the war draws to a close, it seems like the vampire and the doctor are free to start a future together. But just how far the Nazis will go to further their own evil ends?

Desperate times make for ruthless men as loves and lives are threatened, but, Miranda and Ben know that their world cannot go to hell, not by any means…

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Book Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Insurgent was probably one of the most anticipated novels of this year. And personally I already know which book will be my most anticipated novel of 2013. Yes, the wait for the third book is a long one: the expected publication date is September 26th 2013. That's 287 more days.
I flew through Insurgent, the story is even more compelling and fascinating than Divergent.

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.
Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

My thoughts

With Roth's writing style as compelling as in Divergent, we are pulled into the story. It has the reader in a grasp and won't let go until the last page has been read.
Insurgent is most definitely a worthy sequel to Divergent.


Every war leaves its traces, this one is no exception.
Tris struggles with herself, tries to cope with her grief. In the meantime the war rages on and of course there's Four. It's the developments that intrigued me, both in characters as in Tris's entire world.
Tris' tendency to throw herself in front of guns and Four's frustrations makes their relationship very intense, confusing and emotional. Their romance is handled perfectly, I was amazed by how it evolved with so much going on around them. This makes their relationship realistic, believable and moving.

Keeping up with the story requires some presence of mind though. It is complicated and rushes from one situation  into the other. Something you'll either love or hate. There is a lot of moving around throughout the city, there are numerous fronts of people and suddenly there's a shift in power. We're also introduced to the world outside the fence, which promises a rather interesting third installment.

My rating of this book

Source

Bought a copy in Cambridge :)

Other links

Find this book on Goodreads

Visit Veronica Roth's website here

~ Sylke

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Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

I am not the only person celebrating a birthday today. These books were published exactly one year ago. Back then I decided I wanted to read both, yet until today I haven't had the chance to take a look at them.

Winging It (The Dragon Diaries #2)by Deborah Cooke

The new Dragon Diary novel from the author of Flying Blind.
Zoë Sorensson yearns to come into her powers as the only female dragon shifter. But being part of two worlds is more complicated than she expected. It's bad enough that she's the target of the Mages's plan to eliminate all shifters-but she also has to hide her true nature from her human best friend, Megan. But when Megan gets a last-minute invite to the popular kids' Halloween party-hosted by an apprentice Mage-Zoë must save the day and her best friend without revealing her fire- breathing secrets...

Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices #2) by Cassandra Clare
In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.
With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.
Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?
As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

It's also Rubeus Hagrid's birthday today! The friendly wizard is now 84 years of age.

So, have you read these books? If yes, did you enjoy them?

I hope you have a nice day,

~ Sylke

Book review: Variant by Robison Wells

Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life. He was wrong. Now he's trapped in a school that's surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive. Where breaking the rules equals death. But when Benson stumbles upon the school's real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape--his only real hope for survival--may be impossible. (From Goodreads)

Variant by Robison Wells really surprised me in a good way. I was a bit let down after reading Beautiful Creatures before this one and other experiences this year. I felt a lot of the supernatural books in YA were starting to get to predictable. Variant is a dystopia but still my expectations were decreased. This is not predictable, it is never boring and has characters I believe in.

Maybe one of the reasons this really worked for me is that the story acts within certain limitations. The students are trapped inside a school ground and they know very little about what happens on the other side of those video cameras. This gives the author more room to develop the plot and build the tension and mood in the story. I also have to say that I personally found it a bit refreshing and relieving not to have to put my mind to another society or universe just this once. Because it is kind of demanding to do so in every book you read and first of all is it demanding for the writer to develop such a universe and society and not everyone can do this as well as others.

What Robison Wells really can do well is to create a very unpleasant mood with a couple of surprising twists and turns. I both enjoyed and disliked not knowing how bad this could go and not knowing what would happen to any of the characters and who to trust . It's still well within the boundaries of what I can endure. Benson is a character I think most people can identify and/or sympathize with. He's the one who asks questions about what is happening to them and he's the one who takes matters in to action when the rest of them either doesn't want to or are to afraid. He could be a little more careful in my opinion but I understand his actions and his flaws make him very human. I think most of us wants to be that brave person that just don't accept injustice. I can also understand the students that are too afraid or too comfortable with the situation. What they all have in commom is that no one is missing them. They came from fostercare where they were unhappy and probably thought they were really lucky to get in to this private academy.

Variant is a very thrilling and unpredictable read. I was not only surprised but even a bit shocked during my read. Languagewise it is not the greatest exsperience of all times but it works and the book has something even more important, a good story. I have very high excpectations for the next book, Feedback, that is already out in english. Have any of you read it by the way? I have to warn you that this ends with a real cliffhanger so it could be nice to have the sequel close at hand. I think I am going to wait for the norwegian book to come out in 2013 since I read this in norwegian, but the english version might just end up in my cart the next time I'm in buying books online.

My source:
A gift from the norwegian publisher Cappelen Damm for a book blog tour

My rating:



Silje

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Book Excerpt

Chapter One – “Call me Fishmael”

Where have all the good men gone?

Serina James brushed off the meddlesome thought as she flipped the sign to Closed at the front of her new swimwear shop, Suits You Boutique. She still had way too much work to do to be pining away over the lack of eligible males in the town of Melody Point. Socialites from nearby Newport, Rhode Island to the Hamptons had hit the boutique hard lately with rush orders for custom swimwear women just had to have yesterday. Yes, the summer season was in full swing.

At least, that was the case during the day. But by night, the regular summer crowds filling up the usual trendy night spots in the small tourist town had been, well, lacking in the “available men” department.

But she needed to focus on the task at hand; work on her recent design creation, a two-piece, black bathing suit prototype that she now wore. She wended her way around racks of colorful swimsuits and entered the back private sewing area where her best friend Becca Chase stood patiently waiting.

“All ready for the final fitting?” Becca asked.

“Yes. We are officially closed. Thanks for staying after hours to help.” Serina was just about to stand up on the dressing platform in front of the three-paneled mirror when something caught her eye across the room. “Hold on,” she told Becca and marched over to an ivory string bikini on a hanger.

“What are you doing? You already finished that,” Becca complained.

“Oh, really? This crooked stitch screamed at me from across the room.” Serina fingered the hem on the bikini top. Yep, there it was. “I’ll have to re-sew the entire thing.”

Becca came up beside her to inspect the goods. “You’re kidding me, right? It’s not really crooked, it’s just…wait, let me get this straight. You saw this so-called imperfect single stitch from across the room?”

“Yeah? So?”

“How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“How do you see things…” Becca shook her head and laughed. “Never mind. Now, can we get back to working on your prototype?”

“Sure. I’ll fix that stitching tomorrow.” Serina lowered the imperfect bikini top onto her workbench and made her way back toward the dressing platform. She climbed on top and inspected the black prototype in the mirror’s reflection. She pointed to a section of hem on the board-short waistline and indicated where to put a finishing pin.

Becca got to work, which allowed Serina’s thoughts to skip right back to the uneven male-to-female ratio in the area. Gosh, she’d been distracted by it all day. How many more times would the thought pop into her head? What had gotten into her?

“Becca, do you think Melody Point has a man-shortage?” she blurted.

Becca peeked up from under her mane of curly brown locks, her eyes wide. “A man-shortage? I don’t know, why?”

“Pickin’s are slim lately. Men seem scarce. They’re either in some obscure relationship, or away on business on short notice, or vacationing elsewhere.” Realizing how silly she sounded, Serina waved off the idea. “Nah, forget I mentioned it.”

“No, I won’t forget it. I’m glad you’re coming around and thinking about getting out there again. It’s about time.”

Serina scoffed. “Don’t get any ideas. I’m not coming around. I just, well, noticed the lack of fish in the sea, is all. Besides, I’m way too busy keeping this business afloat to get back ‘out there’ again.”

She barely finished her sentence when a pinprick stabbed her side.

“Yeouch!” Serina arched her back in time to keep away from her friend before she jabbed her again. “You did that on purpose!”

“Only because I didn’t like what you said. You can’t use your work as an excuse forever. Now stay still and don’t make me stick you again,” Becca barked as she added another pin to the swimsuit…

About the Author

Known as, “the Wedding Writer,” Kimberly Llewellyn is the best-selling author of Almost a Brideand Siren Call. Her humorous women’s fiction and romantic comedies have been published by Kensington and Penguin/Berkley. Learn more about the author and her books athttp://www.kimberlyllewellyn.com.