Review: A Great and Terrible Beauty

Title: A Great and Terrible Beauty

Author: Libba Bray
Pages: 403

Rating: 3/5

Gemma Doyle isn't like other girls. Girls with impeccable manners, who speak when spoke to, who remember their station, and who will lie back and think of England when it's required of them.

No, sixteen year old Gemma is an island unto herself, sent to the Spence Academy in London after tragedy strikes her family in India. Lonely, guilt ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma finds a chilly reception. But she's not completely alone...she's been followed by a mysterious young man, who warns her to close her mind against the visions.

For it's at Spence that Gemma's power to attract the supernatural unfolds; there she becomes entangled with the school's most powerful girls and discovers her mother's connection to a shadowy group call the Order. It's there that her destiny waits...if only she can believe in it (Book Blurb).

Almost one year after purchasing this book, I decided to give it a try. I was looking for something different after finishing the Twilight Saga and thought that this would do the trick. The premise sounded so good. Plus, this young adult novel has received wonderful reviews on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. However, despite my best intentions, this book took me almost two weeks to read.

Gemma, herself, is a like able character. And her story is interesting. I just don't know if it moved too slowly for me or if I was still on an Edward Cullen high but I found myself really struggling to finish this book. Finally on about page 325 (out of 400), I felt like the book picked up speed and I actually began enjoying it. I do want to see what happens with the Realms and whether or not Gemma can defeat the evil Circe, so I will be reading the two other books in the trilogy. I just think I'll be giving myself a break before starting them.

I'm curious to see what other readers felt about this book. Stop by and let me know :)

Review: Breaking Dawn

Title: Breaking Dawn - Book 4 in the Twilight Saga

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Pages: 768

Rating: 4.5/5

I'm a walking zombie this morning due to this book. After staying up until 2AM and waking back up at 5, I'm not sure how much I'll get accomplished at work today. But it was well worth the struggle I'll go through this morning. It is horribly hard to write this review without giving away spoilers, so if you've yet to read this or the first three books, don't read this review.

Breaking Dawn opens by telling the story of Edward and Bella's engagement and wedding. The wedding, planned mainly by Alice, is beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. Edward and Bella's hearts and lives are finally joined as one, but Bella has made a great sacrifice to accommodate this. She is leaving behind not only Jacob, her "best man" and other love, but also must begin to prepare to leave behind her family as her main goal is to become a vampire and be with Edward forever. Edward and Bella leave for their honeymoon to a small island off the coast of Brazil. There, Edward finally gives into Bella and makes love to her, not without the remorse and regret that is so his character. Bella being Bella believes that practice will make perfect, and seduces Edward into trying again. All the resulting love making creates a child, despite everything that Edward and Carlisle had believed to be true.

Edward, not happy with the pregnancy and wishing for Bella to terminate the pregnancy rushes Bella home. Bella, however, has created an alliance of sorts with Rosalie and insists on carrying her "little nudger" full term. It is at this point that the story shifts from Bella's point of view to Jacob's.

Jacob, still passionately in love with Bella, flees his "werewolf" pack when he finds that they wish to destroy Bella in order to destroy her child. Leaving behind Sam, he takes his right as true Alpha and creates his own pack with the Clearwaters. They warn Edward's family and watch guard for any attacks. It is at this time when Jacob sees Bella, whose pregnancy is progressing extremely quickly and basically killing her. As a reader you experience all of his emotions and then some as time quickly passes and Bella gives birth. It is a very violent and bloody birth, with breaking of bones and large amounts of blood loss. Edward turns Bella into a vampire, and Jacob almost immediately imprints on Reenesme, Edward and Bella's daughter.

Breaking Dawn then returns to Bella's point of view (my favorite part of Book 4). We see as Bella experiences all the new things her vampire future has given her, and watch as the Cullens are overwhelmed by her unbelievable self control around humans. Also, Bella comes to realize her gift and in the end using that weapon against the Volturi (I am not going to give away the entire ending --- it would completely ruin everything else).

I am 100% completely in love with this saga. I know many readers and reviewers have giving Breaking Dawn in particular horrible reviews, but after stepping back and re-reading the first three books before reading this one, I felt it was a perfect wrap up to an absolutely amazing saga. One must remember that the Twilight Saga is a love story. Any truly good love story ends in a HEA, otherwise it would be a tragedy - much along the lines of Romeo and Juliet. I think one reviewer on Amazon nailed it one the head when she said that Breaking Dawn would most likely appeal to the older married readers of the saga -as they too have already experienced the pure joy and love of marriage and creating a family. I felt everything that happened in Breaking Dawn, to the pregnancy to Jacob's imprinting, was vital to the rest of the story. How else would Jacob get is ending - killing Edward only would have enraged Bella, it would not have made her run into Jacob's arm. I truly believe that Stephenie Meyer did the best that she could for these characters. Edward, Bella and Jacob are her babies and who wouldn't want to see they're babies happy? The only reasoning I gave it 4.5/5 stars is because I was really sick of reading about the sexual innuendos between Bella and Edward after her change --- I mean, he is still really my vampire man not hers.

Now I am off to find something else to read. I hard task after reading this saga, with its electric pull and dearly loved characters.

Reading Goals 2009

Each year, I feel it is important to make a list of reading goals. In years past I've made huge ridiculous reading goals that I have never met. This year I'm going to try to make these goals much more reasonable.

So here they are in no particular order:

1. Complete the 2009 100+ Reading Challenge
2. Choose the above books from my massive TBR pile
3. Try to finish and complete at least 5 of the series I have accumulated including Harry Potter.
4. Keep my blog current and reviews current (I'm already starting off behind so I can only imagine how this will go)

Those are going to be my goals for the year. I think I can accomplish them, however, I do worry about completing at least 100 books, but we shall see as the year progresses.

A New Month...A Great Movie

Ok, so I wasn't so hot in the posting department for November. I'm about four reviews behind, so I should be getting those up here in the next few days. DH is out of town for deer hunting season, so I'm at home by myself (thank goodness I have those two vicious attack dogs to keep me safe - they'll wag their tails to ward off the bad guys ;) ) I didn't read any of my November books. I ended up getting sucked into the library and not bothering with the books I had picked out. Sad and pathetic.

On a much happier note, I went and saw Twilight yesterday. I will be returning to the theater this weekend to see it again. I thought it was *that* good. I sat there and quietly drooled over Edward, totally enthralled with his relationship with Bella. I seriously considered leaving DH and going to hunt down Rob Pattison and begging him to marry me. That idea is still under heavy thought...lol. The whole movie, in and of itself, was truly amazing to me. I got out of the theater, and couldn't stop talking about it. Then I got home and couldn't stop thinking about it. I woke up several times in the middle of the night, thinking of Edward. I had the whole sweaty palms, shortness of breath, couldn't speak thing going on. It was as bad as, if not worse, then when I read the book.

When I had seen the previews for the movies, I didn't know how I felt about Rob Pattison. Was he truly worthy to play someone as stunningly beautiful as Edward? I had very mixed feelings about him as an actor. However, I tried to keep an open mind about the whole thing. I didn't want to guide a book by the cover, per say. So as the opening credits began to roll, I settled into my seat with my popcorn and giant sized Dr. Pepper fearing disappoint but hoping to me amazed. As the first couple of scenes featuring Edward played across the screen, my fears began to melt. And then, it happened. Bella was going to be attacked by those nasty strange men, when Edward's silver Volvo comes flying onto the screen. Jumping out of the car he immediately tells Bella to get in the car and scares away the bad guys. Angels sang, my heart jumped, I was swooning. And that my friends, is when the obsession started.

So my advice --- GO SEE THE MOVIE. Take your mom, take your friends, take a drool bib --- JUST GO!!

Wiiiii!!!

I am now one of those crazy Wii owning individuals. DH and I have been counting pennies the last few months and finally had the money to get one and the accessories we wanted. Now I just can't wait for work to be over with so we can get crackin! :)

Review: The Lucky One

In his 14th book, bestselling author Nicholas Sparks tells the unforgettable story of a man whose brushes with death lead him to the love of his life.

After U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman buried in the dirt during his tour of duty in Iraq, he experiences a sudden streak of luck -- winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat. Only his best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photograph -- his lucky charm.

Back home in Colorado, Thibault can't seem to get the woman in the photograph out of his mind and he sets out on a journey across the country to find her. But Thibault is caught off guard by the strong attraction he feels for the woman he encounters in North Carolina - Elizabeth, a divorced mother -- and he keeps the story of the photo, and his luck, a secret. As he and Elizabeth embark upon a passionate love affair, his secret soon threatens to tear them apart -- destroying not only their love, but also their lives.

Filled with tender romance and terrific suspense, THE LUCKY ONE is an unforgettable story about the surprising paths our lives often take and the power of fate to guide us to true and everlasting love (Amazon.com).

I am not one of those raving Nicholas Sparks fans that talk about how his books are the end all and be all of the modern romantic tale. At times, I find his books to be a bit corny and hokey and this one was really no exception. Unlike his earlier novels (The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe, A Walk to Remember), this book just does not seem to have the same zing. In fact, it's almost more of a zud...lol.

The story itself is told through the eyes of three main characters: Elizabeth, Thibault, and Clayton. All the characters are connected in different ways, and their actions with eachother are the true center of the story. At the beginning of the novel, we learn that Thibault is an Iraqi War Veteran, who has walked across the country looking for a woman he has never met. The woman is from a picture that he found half buried in the sand in Kuwait. Thibault views the picture as his "lucky charm," saving him from death many times throughout the war.

Thibault's first meeting with anyone his new town is with Clayton, a self centered, immature, ANNOYING cop from a famously rich family. It is easy to say that this character continually grated on my nerves. Every chapter that was from his point of view made me a bit queasy and I couldn't wait to finish them. Plus, he treats women as nothing more than sexual objects and that totally turned me off from his character.

I don't want to give anymore of the plot away because it will ruin the story for those who want to read it. I'm not saying it was a bad story, it just wasn't Sparks' best and I found it to be a bit far fetched. Who honestly walks from Colorado to the Carolinas with a back pack and a dog? If I were to do it all over again, I would have waited for the MMPB to come out and saved myself some money.
3/5

Monday Buys

We had a super busy weekend with Halloween parties, birthdays, and High School Musical 3 (awesome!!). I didn't get a lot of reading done and obviously no posting. However, I did get a chance to run to Borders last night to spend by birthday gift certificates from there. I walked away with four books and a doberman calender for DH (because all good wives buy their husbands gifts with their birthday money...lol). Here's what I got:

The Lucky One: Nicholas Sparks ---
Is there really such thing as a lucky charm? The hero of Nicholas Sparks's new novel believes he's found one in the form of a photograph of a smiling woman he's never met, but who he comes to believe holds the key to his destiny. The chain of events that leads to him possessing the photograph and finding the woman pictured in it is the stuff of love stories only a master such as Sparks can write (Amazon.com).

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: David Wrobleswki ---
Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar's lifelong friend and ally. But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar's paternal uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelles' once peaceful home. When Edgar's father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm--and into Edgar's mother's affections.

Grief-stricken and bewildered, Edgar tries to prove Claude played a role in his father's death, but his plan backfires--spectacularly. Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who follow him. But his need to face his father's murderer and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs turn Edgar ever homeward (Amazon.com).

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes: Diane Chamberlain ---
An unsolved murder.

A missing child.

A lifetime of deception.

In 1977, pregnant Genevieve Russell disappeared. Twenty years later, her remains are discovered and Timothy Gleason is charged with murder. But there is no sign of the unborn child.

CeeCee Wilkes knows how Genevieve Russell died, because she was there. And she also knows what happened to the missing infant, because two decades ago she made the devastating choice to raise the baby as her own. Now Timothy Gleason is facing the death penalty, and she has another choice to make. Tell the truth, and destroy her family. Or let an innocent man die in order to protect a lifetime of lies… (Amazon.com)

Sister Mine: Tawni O'Dell ---
No one dissects a tangled web of relationships like Tawni ODell. And no one can bring alive a group of varied players like the throaty, feisty Rene Raudman. Forty-year-old ex-cop Shae-Lynn Penrose returns to her hometown of Jolly Mount, Pennsylvania, to drive a cab and care for her son, Caleb. She thinks shes escaped her brutal childhood, but her nightmares return when her younger sister shows up and gives birth to a baby she plans to sell. Complicating the problem is the sisters Russian lover, a baby broker, and the sudden confession of the towns richest businessman, who is Calebs heretofore unknown father (Amazon.com).

All in all I didn't do too bad for $60 bucks. Both the Nicholas Sparks book and the Story of Edgar Sawtelle were on sale for 40% off so that was exciting. I actually started The Lucky One last night so I'll have to let you know how that is :)