Teaser Tuesday: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Yes, yes, all of you scream your heads off at me. I actually had tried in vain to read this...in fourth grade. But I'd lost interest. But back then, all things fantasy, romance, paranormal, and dystopian were shunned in my small ignorant brain. But I've decided why not? To heck with it! Maybe I'll end up liking the books. I've actually just started, so I'm just going to share the first few sentences.

I'd never given much thought to how I would die—though I'd had reason enough in the last few months—but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this. 

Interesting, right? I think the first book might be pretty good, but I don't know if I'll like the rest. Only time will tell, right? I usually will find the first few books of a series enjoyable, but then I'll end up just wanting to kill myself if the series start to drag out, like the author just wanted to make a few extra bucks. I think Twilight might be really good, though. New Moon's supposed to be really boring, I don't know about Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn is just supposed to be wrong. Tell me what you think!

Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Cover: 4

Characters: 5

Plot: 4

Setting: 4

Writing: 5

SUMMARY

Young Katniss Everdeen has survived the dreaded Hunger Games not once, but twice, but even now she can find no relief. In fact, the dangers seem to be escalating: President Snow has declared an all-out war on Katniss, her family, her friends, and all the oppressed people of District 12. The thrill-packed final installment of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy will keep young hearts pounding.

REVIEW

This ending was thrilling. There was so much action, so much rebellion, and everything was so fast-paced that I was scrambling to keep up. I actually did this book for one of my projects. I'd snap a picture and show you the very lame cover that I drew up at the last minute, but it's hanging in my LAL classroom, taunting me everyday.

Anyway, in this book, since I've never actually read the ending to a dystopian series until this one, I was expecting high drama and for everything to be wrapped up into one tiny neat little package. I've read conclusions to many other books that aren't dystopian, and they were all wrapped up neatly. This one, of course, was definitely wrapped up neatly. 

In this, Katniss decides who she'll end up with. I was debating Peeta and Gale because I liked them both equally, and I usually choose the guy who hasn't been the girl's best friend for a while, but I usually also choose the one who's more rebellious, who is secretly extremely tortured and actually deep and has many secrets. But who doesn't like the rebellious types?

In the end, I ended up favoring Gale a little more, just because he was the hot and mysterious bad boy who was secretly very deep. (I see it so many times in YA books, especially in love triangles, but I still love them. ;)) No spoilers in this post, so I'm going to say that Katniss's choice was very quick and was resolved near the end. I think that everything was crammed into the last few chapters that it was a little hard to keep track of everything, but nevertheless, it was still very well-written.

All I can say is that the Hunger Games movie will actually include all three books, like in Harry Potter, because what we usually see in the media world these days is that they'll make a movie of the first book, and even if that movie was great, you'll barely see the sequel be produced into a next novel. But this series really does deserve to be made into a full three-part movie production.

Five Snowflakes

Follow Friday--9

RULES

1. To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules: 
2. (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee and Alison Can Read} 
3. (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers 
4. Put your Blog name and URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts. 
5. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say “hi” in your comments and that they are now following you. 
6. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don’t just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don’t say “HI” 
7. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love…and the followers 
8. If you’re new to the follow friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

Question:
Which book genre do you avoid at all costs and why?

Answer:
I stay away from historical fiction as much as possible because I find it extremely tiresome and boring. Sometimes I'll make an exception, but usually I just don't really like it. History in general doesn't appeal to me because even though history repeats itself, as my father always says, it's always the same facts over and over again. In fiction, you have the same concept but different details.

Torment by Lauren Kate

Torment by Lauren Kate

Cover: 4

Characters: 3

Plot: 3

Setting: 3

Writing: 4

SUMMARY:

Hell on earth.

That’s what it’s like for Luce to be apart from her fallen angel boyfriend, Daniel.
It took them an eternity to find one another, but now he has told her he must go away. Just long enough to hunt down the Outcasts—immortals who want to kill Luce. Daniel hides Luce at Shoreline, a school on the rocky California coast with unusually gifted students: Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans.

At Shoreline, Luce learns what the Shadows are, and how she can use them as windows to her previous lives. Yet the more Luce learns, the more she suspects that Daniel hasn’t told her everything. He’s hiding something—something dangerous. 

What if Daniel’s version of the past isn’t actually true? What if Luce is really meant to be with someone else? 

The second novel in the addictive FALLEN series . . . where love never dies.

REVIEW:

Once again, this book has a perfectly perfect cover. Covers usually determine whether or not I'll end up reading the book because it goes perfectly with the first book, but this time the setting's changed from the woods at Luce's school to the beach at Luce's new school. I like how the dress sort of alters. It's still so pretty, though.

The prologue of this was really confusing because it was set in Daniel's POV and when the first chapter started and it shifted to Luce's POV, it was still confusing because some time had passed between the two books. I think throughout the first two books, Ms. Kate kept us in the dark the entire time and I had to figure out everything for myself.

In this book, Miles (Luce's friend in the book) ends up falling for her, and then there's a love triangle between the guys that was a little flimsy in my opinion. The romance between Luce and Daniel was really...unreal. I thought that Daniel thought that Luce was just supposed to love him and then he didn't really care about what Luce thought except for when they were feelings against him.

There were a few twists and turns in this book, and I felt that Luce was extremely reckless and I also was annoyed at Daniel for just expecting that Luce was supposed to love him and how Luce was so convinced that she was, just because Daniel had said so. I'm still reading the third book, mainly because I want all the confusion to just be gone and that last twist Ms. Kate threw in there pretty much ensured the fact that I'm going to read it.

Movie Monday (1)

<a href="http://s1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj632/abookywonderland/?action=view&amp;current=MovieMondayOriginal-1.gif" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj632/abookywonderland/MovieMondayOriginal-1.gif" border="0" alt="Movie Monday Button"></a>

Movie Monday is a brand new meme here at A Booky Wonderland and I hope you like it!

The concept is simple. What book did you read in the last week that you absolutely want to be a movie? Or, which book that you've read in the past that's been made into a movie compare to the movie? Or, what do you expect in an upcoming movie that's been based off a book? You can basically do anything, as long as that books been:

• turned into a movie
• in production to be made into a movie
• or a book you read the previous week that you think should be a movie

For example, I would really want Divergent to become a movie, (and let's pretend I read it last week) so I would start telling everybody how great it is and why it would make an awesome movie. For the next question, I could say that I've read Harry Potter and I think it's better (or worse) than the movies based off of the series and what the movies (or books) could've done better. And for the last example, I could say that I expect the Hunger Games movie to have loads of action and to have this and this scene in the movie, because those were my favorite in the book.

That's simple, right? You can grab the button (posted on the top, under the Movie Monday button) and please link it back to me when using it. Thanks!

Okay, I actually am going to do the Hunger Games in this case because there's so much buzz going on about it and I'm just itching to tell everybody about what I want the movie to have that there was in the book. Safe and Sound, the first song on the Hunger Games soundtrack, which was written by Taylor Swift and the Civil Wars, is supposed to be when Katniss leaves Peeta to get him the medicine. Personally, I think this is a perfect time for the song to come in, even if everybody else says it should be when Rue dies. I think Jennifer will record her own song and it will play then, because Katniss sings Rue a song anyway during then.

I really want the action to be higher than ever (like I said above) in this movie and for the movie to be good enough so when I take my little brother and anybody else along with me, they won't keep leaning over and asking questions, like, "What's that supposed to mean?" A good movie based off of an awesome book won't be confusing and hard to understand unless you've read the books. Maybe I'll take somebody who has read the books to avoid that...Hmm...

Well, that's it for my first ever Movie Monday! I hope you liked it!

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Cover: 4

Characters: 3

Plot: 3

Setting: 4
Writing: 4

SUMMARY

There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce–and goes out of his way to make that very clear–she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her.

REVIEW

At first, I was browsing around, looking through all the options of new books I could possibly read, and this came up. The cover was so pretty that I really wanted to get it ASAP. And I got it, but it didn't meet all my expectations. First of all, throughout the entire book, I had that weird feeling that the book was meant to be set in first person instead of third person. It felt a little out of place, but I sort of got over it after a while.

As I was reading through it, I slowly got more and more confused. Ms. Kate kept us in the dark so often that I had to piece everything together very slowly and by then, I was feeling very confused and flustered with everything. This book was still extremely well written, but I just think that the book should have been written in first person and that Ms. Kate should have kept us out of the dark throughout the book.

Another thing was that Luce was...well...really...kind of...annoying. She was definitely a courageous-type character, but I thought that she was really nosy and I thought that was how she got into so much trouble in the end. She also seemed really gullible around Daniel. But otherwise, this was a really great book.

Follow Friday—8

RULES

1. To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules: 
2. (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee and Alison Can Read} 
3. (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers 
4. Put your Blog name and URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts. 
5. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say “hi” in your comments and that they are now following you. 
6. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don’t just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don’t say “HI” 
7. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love…and the followers 
8. If you’re new to the follow friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

Question:
What's the craziest thing you've ever done to get your hands on any particular book?

Answer:
I'm really boring, I know, and I'm fully aware of it, but the craziest thing would probably be trailing my dad all through the bookstore with this one book in front of me the entire time and I would just stare at him and get all in his face until he finally got so fed up with me that he just snatched the book out of my hands and was all like, "Fine. You win. You get the book. Now leave me alone."

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Cover: 4

Characters: 5

Plot: 5

Setting: 5

SUMMARY

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won the annual competition described in Hunger Games, but the aftermath leaves these victors with no sense of triumph. Instead, they have become the poster children for a rebellion that they never planned to lead. That new, unwanted status puts them in the bull's-eye for merciless revenge by The Capitol...

REVIEW

From this summary, you don't really know a lot of what's going on in the book. This basically only had covered the first part of the book because during the Victory Tour, the tour for the victors, some things happen and then it leads to a string of activities which then leads to the beginning of Mockingjay and so forth. I don't want to spoil it, so just read the book.

Like the last book, Catching Fire didn't lack action at all. I expected it to have less action than the Hunger Games, since they were no longer in the arena, but it didn't at all. I was at the edge of my seat throughout the entire book. Everything was just so exciting and the plot was so well thought out. The characters were already very well developed in the first books, but the new characters that we were introduced to were just as well developed and I loved every last character and I was so sad to see some of them die in the end.

The setting is so well described that I really felt the mood of each district, and the scenery was extremely vivid and in short, I loved loved loved loved loved the way Ms. Collins described everything. The concepts of the book were also extremely well thought-out, and I could tell the author spent a lot of consideration making up these settings and ideas.

This is no less worse the Hunger Games in my opinion. In fact, it just gets more exciting. If you think the Hunger Games were intense, wait till you read Catching Fire!

Five Snowflakes

Waiting on Wednesday: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

 

SUMMARY

You will kill. The only question is when.

In the dark days since the insidious Red Lung virus decimated the human population, vampires have risen to rule the crumbling cities and suburbs. Uncontested Princes hold sway over diminished ranks of humans: their "pets." In exchange for their labor, loyalty and of course, their blood, these pets are registered, given food and shelter, permitted to survive.

Unregistered humans cling to fringes, scavenging for survival. Allison Sekemoto and her fellow Unregistereds are hunted, not only by vampires, but by rabids, the unholy result of Red Lung-infected vampires feeding on unwary humans. One night, Allie is attacked by a pack of rabids, saved by an unlikely hero...and turned vampire.

Uncomfortable in her undead skin, Allie falls in with a ragtag crew of humans seeking a cure, or cures: for Rabidism and for Vampirism. She's passing for human...for now. But the hunger is growing and will not be denied. Not for friendship—not even for love.

I really loved Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series, and I can't wait to see what she's going to do in the post-apocalyptic novel. This blog is extremely new, so if I tried to request an ARC for this, I'd probably get turned down unless I have a lot of followers and if I had been blogging for a really long time. But until then, I'm just going to hope and raid my library every other day. :)

Who else can't wait for this book?