Review: Nightshade

Characters: 5

Cover: 5

Plot: 5

Romance: 5

Writing: 5

Read Andrea Cremer's blogs and other content on the Penguin Community. Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything- including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice?

REVIEW

Oh my word! I can't even begin to imagine how awesome this book is and how much that I HAVE to read the next book, Wolfsbane, I believe? I am so behind on reviews, looking at the list of books I have compiled. I've only had this book for a quarter of a year and I'm slacking off already. Jeez, oh well, I'll have to deal with it for know while I can. By the way, do you like the new textbox I inserted for my summaries? I think I like it a lot better now. I've been trying to figure it out for a while and I finally got it now!

First of all, the characters. Calla's such an independent and great character and heroine. I think that she really holds her own when in a pickle and can stand up for herself extremely well. I don't know about you and your opinions, but I think that Calla was a fantastic person to read about because of her undeniable strength and leadership that made her an ideal alpha for her pack and an ideal protagonist, unlike some other types of protagonists. *cough* Bella *cough* (I actually managed to finish that book last night. The review will go up soon.)

This cover is beautiful. I love it, but I like the other version better than this one. This one, although extremely pretty, doesn't compare to the other version which I love so much more. The cover for the original (above) is not as pretty because in the second version, Calla looks more wild and unpredictable, sort of like how a werewolf should look, to me, at least. Th theme of the title and the blood drop coming down is still great, but something about this cover just appeals so much more to me.

The plot on here was absolutely smashing, as you probably know. Ooh, I feel all British today. :) There wasn't a lot of action, but there were definitely parts where you had to sit back for a while and just let it all soak in to its fullest. There were also sections of the book that were extremely romantic, and I think I like how Ren really cared about Calla, despite how obliviously oblivious the poor girl was. :) I like Ren better because I feel that Ren made a better argument and so many readers out there like the bad-boy a lot better than the sweet boy.

The writing is great in here. Andrew shows, not tells, which was a lot better than just saying "I'm hungry." It's not very lyrical or very fun to read, rather than something like "My stomach protested loudly" or something like that. Everything in here flowed so well and nothing was ever confusing and I recommend that you all read this book ASAP if you haven't already because it's a great read, let me tell you that.

Waiting on Wednesday—7

Haven Terra is a brainy, shy high school outcast. But everything begins to change when she turns sixteen. Along with her best friend Dante and their quiet and brilliant classmate Lance, she is awarded a prestigious internship in the big city— Chicago—and is sent to live and work at a swanky and stylish hotel under the watchful eyes of a group of gorgeous and shockingly young-looking strangers: powerful and alluring hotel owner Aurelia Brown; her second-in-command, the dashing Lucian Grove; and their stunning but aloof staff of glamazons called The Outfit.

As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that these beautiful people are not quite what they seem. With the help of a mysterious book, she uncovers a network of secret passageways from the hotel’s jazz-age past that leads her to the heart of the evil agenda of Aurelia and company: they’re in the business of buying souls. Will they succeed in wooing Haven to join them in their recruitment efforts, or will she be able to thwart this devilish set’s plans to take the souls of her classmates on prom night at the hotel?

Illuminate is an exciting saga of a teen’s first taste of independence, her experience in the lap of luxury, and her discovery she may possess strength greater than she ever knew.

This is probably a huge violation in the Waiting on Wednesday protocol, but I already defied the Teaser Tuesday rules, so why not do the same with Waiting on Wednesday? I just started testing out this new thing on my blog, where I'll put the summaries in that fancy box up there, so I don't know if it works, because previewing my blog, everything looks really messed up, so if it is, please tell me what I did wrong. If I didn't, then thank goodness. :)

EDIT: I changed the box because everything was getting messed up. Sow now I'm stuck with this until I figure something new out.

I've heard such great things about this book, and I can't wait until I get my own hands on it, because as you can tell from the summary, it looks great! I hope to be able to read it as soon as possible, and I hope to enjoy it a lot, or, at lease as much as I expect to because of the gorgeous cover!

Teaser Tuesday—7

Cover talk! I actually don't have a teaser this week for this Teaser Tuesday, since I actually left my book at school (Very classy, Taylor) so I'm going to have a discussion on the covers. I liked the one to the right a lot better, the hardcover version for it. I think the paperback version isn't nearly as pretty. I really love the bloody flowers on the one in the right,and how pretty the model looks in that picture, but I also love how the wolf is almost a part of Calla in the one on the left.

I like how the covers still look the same, and how the left one's simpler and depicts Calla better, but I think that I like the overdone covers better than the simpler ones, even though I like a simple, captivating cover like this one, but it can't compete with an extravagant cover like the original one.

What do you think of the covers? Which one do you like better and what do you like about both of them? Wow, I could be an LAL teacher with all the questions I have. :)

Movie Monday–6

<a href="http://abookywonderland.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Movie Monday Button, The button for my Movie Monday events" border="0" src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj632/abookywonderland/MovieMondayOriginal-1.gif" /></a></div>

Oh, you're so jealous that I have a blog meme that I've been doing for a month and a half now that nobody's even batted an eyelash at. As I've said before, you're jealous at my superior blog meme. Anyway, now that we've passed the no-good, self-pity party, onward, onto the professional part of this blog post, the part that I always post no matter what. :)

Movie Monday is a weekly blog meme hosted by Taylor at A Booky Wonderland and it features the last book you've read and how it could either be suitable for a movie, how it compares to the movie, or what you expect in the upcoming movie.

This week's book is Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.

SUMMARY

What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.

The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death--and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

This book was really sad, and I hated the ending of it. I really wished that after everything that this boo went through, there would be some type of resolution that would make me happy. However, I was really satisfied with the book, and I'm aware that Lauren Oliver likes to write really sad endings to really great books and love stories.

If this was a movie, I'd really like the story to be as well played-out as the book, except for maybe the part where Sam was always like a doormat to her boyfriend, Rob. I know she's popular, but just because they were supposed to do "it" the day she died and she really didn't doesn't mean she has to go through with it because she's scared of upsetting her boyfriend.

I'll admit, the premise of the idea of living your last day before you really die and learning something worthwhile is a little cheesy, but I think that it would still make a great movie to portray, though, and I would definitely watch it. Also, I think that the ending is really great, because I think what Sam ended up doing was really noble.

Review: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Cover: 5

Characters: 4

Plot: 4

Setting: 4

Writing: 5

SUMMARY
What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.

The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death--and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

REVIEW

This book is absolutely captivating. At first, when I initially got this book, I was thinking "Oh, this is probably going to be just another book that I'll forget about in a few weeks." I didn't think there was going to much of a story behind this, and everything would be drearily repetitive, if you relive your last day seven times. Besides, the story of the dead girl coming back and finding herself is so overrated in movies and books these days, but this book definitely made an impact. While I'm writing about how overrated the idea is, it's actually a really great book.

The beginning was a little slow, but necessary for the rest of the book to build upon. Samantha goes through the almost perfect day, and it ends with a car crash. And she wakes up the next day. Sam starts off snotty and reenacting everything she did previously, but then she slowly starts to notice everything and everyone around her, and just how bad she and her friends have been. 

I really didn't like Sam at first because of her snotty attitude, but she slowly cracked her nasty shell, in my opinion, and became this new girl who started standing up for herself and realizing just what she wanted. As for my worry that there wasn't any romance in it, there was a good enough amount of romance that I was satisfied, but I wasn't feeling tingly and happy, but that wasn't the point anyways.

Sam's really obnoxious and odious boyfriend is Rob, who Sam is still dating for some reason, even though I know even she wouldn't stoop that low, and they're supposed to do "it" the night that she dies, but there's this other guy, Kent, who's had this sort-of crush on her for a long time and is not afraid to flirt. Seriously? SAM, JUST OPEN YOUR EYES ALREADY! Kent's three times the man Rob is, and Sam continues to treat Kent like he's a doormat and worshipping the ground Rob walks on. This annoyed me a bit near the ending.

Follow Friday—15

QUESTION: Have you ever looked at a book's cover and thought, This is going to horrible? But, was instead pleasantly surprised? Show us the cover and tell us about the book.

Answer: Well, I was at the library a few times previously, and I'd seen this one book a few times, and it looked like this:

This cover looks pretty good, but I wasn't interested because the synopsis didn't sell me and I didn't feel very drawn to it, but I decided to borrow it anyway, convinced I wouldn't like it. But, oh, I was so wrong. This book was great, the romance was great, and everything in it was so great. This book is now one of my favorites, and I'm so happy that I ended up getting it.

Waiting on Wednesday—6

SUMMARY
Kate Winters has won immortality.

But if she wants a life in the Underworld with Henry, she’ll have to fight for it.

Becoming immortal wasn’t supposed to be the easy part. Though Kate is about to be crowned Queen of the Underworld, she’s as isolated as ever. And despite her growing love for Henry, ruler of the Underworld, he’s becoming ever more distant and secretive. Then, in the midst of Kate’s coronation, Henry is abducted by the only being powerful enough to kill him: the King of the Titans.

As the other gods prepare for a war that could end them all, it is up to Kate to save Henry from the depths of Tartarus. But in order to navigate the endless caverns of the Underworld, Kate must enlist the help of the one person who is the greatest threat to her future.

Henry’s first wife, Persephone.
You do not know how much I want this book. I thought The Goddess Test was great and it's only a few weeks away. I'll probably have to fight to get it sent over to my library somehow or buy it, but I just love the summary and I haven't seen the problem yet for the books and I just want to see what the whole point of this trilogy was and I hope that it's revealed in this book, although I think that the King of the Titans has something to do with it.

Teaser Tuesday—6

SUMMARY

What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.

The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death--and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

I'm really enjoying this book so far, and I think that the entire concept is great. At first, I thought it was going to be really weird and not as interesting as I wanted it to be, but it's really great so far! And here's my teaser:

I briefly run through my other options: home is obviously out. I won't be welcome at Ally's.
Page 226

Movie Monday—5

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And thus we enter another Movie Monday that nobody really pays attention to anyway. *Sigh* But I like it, so I'm okay with that. Anyways, I just recently tried to finish Twilight and I thought that I would like it, at least, a little more than I just did. I think I'm still making a review on it, though, and maybe I'm going to try to finish it. But, no promises.

Now that that's out of the way, I have the professional yuck stuff that I have to get through. Movie Monday is a weekly meme hosted by me, Taylor, at A Booky Wonderland. It highlights the last book you've read and comparing it to the movie adaptation of that book or what you would expect if it were to be made into a book.

So, Twilight... I didn't exactly get it at first, when I first read it on fourth grade. I got to the second chapter and deemed it impossible to read, returning it to the library and never bothering to look at it again. I think, as a reader, that it's so much better to read all the successful books out there instead of just whatever's "being made into the next blockbuster."

Wow, I just left this blog post for like an hour to Facebook and Twitter and all that... I'm a horrible blogger... :( Back to Twilight! I found the entire plot of the first sixty-eight percent (yes, I actually got that far, or short, depending on how you look at it) slow and I didn't think Bella was a really weak heroine, but I thought she was definitely obsessed with Edward. As for the movie, I found it a lot easier to get through because you couldn't hear Bella's thoughts on Edward.

What about you? What did you think about Twilight, and if you haven't read it, do you want to read it?

Follow Friday—14

QUESTION: What book would you love to see made into a movie or television show and do you have actors/actresses in mind to play the main characters?

 

Answer: One book I really liked was the Hunger Games, and I really hope that the movies don't turn out to be a flop. I hope Jennifer Lawrence nails her role and so does Gale and Peeta. For the Harry Potter books, there was so much left out but it was pretty good in the end, and I saw Twilight and have yet to finish reading the books (I keep getting distracted with the other choices of books I have) but everyone said those had issues.

I think that Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler would also make a great movie. I didn't necessarily love it to pieces, but I think it would be a great thing to show on ABC Family or something like that. It just seems like that type of movie you'd see on that channel. I can't really envision the characters, though.

Review: Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler

 

Characters: 4
Cover: 5
Plot: 4
Setting: 4
Writing: 4

SUMMARY
Once upon a time, Hudson knew exactly what her future looked like. Then a betrayal changed her life, and knocked her dreams to the ground. Now she’s a girl who doesn’t believe in second chances… a girl who stays under the radar by baking cupcakes at her mom’s diner and obsessing over what might have been.


So when things start looking up and she has another shot at her dreams, Hudson is equal parts hopeful and terrified. Of course, this is also the moment a cute, sweet guy walks into her life… and starts serving up some seriously mixed signals. She’s got a lot on her plate, and for a girl who’s been burned before, risking it all is easier said than done.


It’s time for Hudson to ask herself what she really wants, and how much she’s willing to sacrifice to get it. Because in a place where opportunities are fleeting, she knows this chance may very well be her last...


REVIEW
I was so extremely excited to read this book at first, and I always LOVE trying to broaden my horizons, especially since I usually just read fantasy, but I know a lot of other people who read contemporaries, dystopians, fantasies, romances, etc. etc. and I want to be sort of like those types of people because reading the same genre of old book over and over again isn't always that glamourous so I'm going to broaden my horizons and start reading more contemporaries. So far, though, I haven't met a life-changing contemporary that's changed my life as much as some of the fantasies out there. (Except for Anna and the French Kiss. I'm pretty sure EVERYBODY loved Anna.)

This cover first reeled me in, and after I bought it, I started reading and reading and reading. I didn't have a lot of time this past week to read it and I actually just recently finished it, but it was a pretty good book. I don't know about you, but I love this cover, because it ties in the book very well, since Hudson's a baker, thus the cookie, and her heart's sort of torn because she has to choose between her love of baking and her love of ice skating.

The thing that really jump-starts Hudson's love of ice skating again was Josh, when they collided during a ice-skating session on the frozen lake. Hudson stopped ice-skating competitively, but she still skates leisurely. I think that moment was really the turning point in Hudson's life. The plot progressed and it got better and better, although I was sort of iffy on the romance, even though it sounds like it's a big deal in the summary; Josh wasn't even mentioned that much.

Hudson eventually gets so overwhelmed with this, after she's waitressing, training for an ice skating competition, training the boys, and baking her cupcakes, that there's a major twist at the end that I did not see and it was crazy. It was sort of cheesy at first to me, the ending, but I got it and this seems like the perfect ABC Family flick—as I've mentioned before—to make.