Tag Archives: Reading

The Darkest Legacy by Alexandra Bracken

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legacy

TITLE: The Darkest Legacy
AUTHOR: Alexandra Bracken

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★ (4)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
The long-awaited new novel in the New York Times best-selling Darkest Minds series, now a major motion picture.

Five years after the destruction of the so-called rehabilitation camps that imprisoned her and countless other Psi kids, seventeen-year-old Suzume “Zu” Kimura has assumed the role of spokesperson for the interim government, fighting for the rights of Psi kids against a growing tide of misinformation and prejudice. But when she is accused of committing a horrifying act, she is forced to go on the run once more in order to stay alive.

Determined to clear her name, Zu finds herself in an uncomfortable alliance with Roman and Priyanka, two mysterious Psi who could either help her prove her innocence or betray her before she gets the chance. But as they travel in search of safety and answers, and Zu grows closer to the people she knows she shouldn’t trust, they uncover even darker things roiling beneath the veneer of the country’s recovery. With her future-and the future of all Psi-on the line, Zu must use her powerful voice to fight back against forces that seek to drive the Psi into the shadows and save the friends who were once her protectors.

From #1 New York Times best-selling author Alexandra Bracken comes a harrowing story of resilience, resistance, and reckoning that will thrill loyal fans and new readers alike.

Buy it HERE on Amazon! 

THE CRITICAL POINTS
I was bound to read The Darkest Legacy at some point. I LOVED the first four books in the series and was just waiting to get through a stack of other “to read” books on my desk before I cracked the spine on this one… also, I didn’t read much in November since I was busy with NaNoWriMo. With that said, let’s get into the book…

WRITING: There is no doubt that Bracken is a talented writer. She has an amazingly creative mind and she is successful at painting a picture with her words. With that said, I think that this books felt a bit rushed… not as much detail… in some spots and too much mundane detail in other spots.

STORY: I had a hard time accepting that the final book in the series was from a completely different perspective. The story didn’t seem to have a really driving force. Zu is a speaker for the government, there is a staged bombing set up by who knows who, Zu goes on the run with two completely new to the reader characters and along the way discovers that Ruby and Liam are missing. Zu’s focus becomes finding Ruby and Liam… even though they haven’t been in the book at all. MORE HERE

It was around page 300 that I started caring about what was going to happen in the book, but not until the last six or seven chapters that the book really started to have the same feel as the previous books in the series. It was those last few chapters that pulled at my mind, tugged at my heart-strings, and made me remember exactly why I loved the series and why I’ll probably pick up anything Alexandra Bracken writes just to see what she comes up with next. No, it wasn’t my favorite of her books, but read it for the ending… I wasn’t disappointed and I don’t think you will be either.

CHARACTERS: I’m not going to lie, I missed the interaction between the main characters within the previous books on this series. It was hard to get into reading from Zu’s perspective at first and I didn’t really feel anything toward Zu, Priyanka, or Roman at first. It wasn’t until about 300 pages in that I actually started caring for the characters, what was going to happen to them, or how their story would end. That isn’t to say that Bracken didn’t do a good job with character development, she did. I just think there could have been more relationship development to make the reader really invested in the characters more.

APPEARANCE: Like the other books in The Darkest Mind series, I think this one is beautifully done. I wish she had kept with a similar style, but seeing as she changed voices from Ruby’s perspective to that of Suzume “Zu”, I suppose a change in look was needed as well. It isn’t my favorite of the covers, but it gets the job done. Even if I hadn’t already intended to read it, I would have picked it up at the books store and at a minimum checked out the back blurb.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES:
“I was still on my feet. There was still breath in my lungs. I wasn’t fine, but I was strong. And I was going to use every ounce of my power to get us the hell out of here.”

“I’m going to remind you that heroes frequently die, but the morally mediocre people almost always live to see another day. Don’t do anything that’s going to piss me off.” ~ Priyanka

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/O29tr8b-33U

#FridayReads 2019

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Welcome to 2019!!!

adult blur books close up

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

In 2018 I had planned to read one book a month… 12 books total, but I ended up reading 30 books by the end of the year. 30 BOOKS… That was way more than I had expected to read or had even hoped to read considering my crazy busy life.

This year, I am aiming for a minimum of 24 books (2 per month) and hope to crush my goal once again. If you’d like to keep up with what I’m reading, make sure you stop by my blog on Friday’s to read my most recent book review. I’ll also be posting YouTube video reviews on my page HERE.

My 2019 Reading List:

  • Shadow of Okeaous by W.M. Martin
  • The Darkest Legacy by Alexandra Bracken
  • The Outsider by Stephen King
  • The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
  • Elevation by Stephen King
  • What if its Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
  • They Both Die at the End by Adam Sivera
  • The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

Since I only own 2 of the above titles, I can’t say in what order I’ll get to these books… just that they intrigue me. If you have reading suggestions, please comment below and let me know what you think I should read this year. I’m open to just about anything. 🙂 

What’s on your 2019 reading list?

The Children of Lot by Vic Kerry

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Children of Lot

 

TITLE: The Children of Lot
AUTHOR: Vic Kerry

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★
Appearance: ★★★
Overall: ★★★★ (3.5)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Life as a middle school principal can be humdrum, and so was the case for Suzanne Clay. Every day it was the same thing, filling out detention slips and dealing with fist fights between boys and the cliquishness among prepubescent girls.

Everything changed when she met the Children of Lot and got caught up in their strange prophecy.

Along with Suzanne, the special education teacher and a handful of students find themselves locked in a potentially deadly and mind-altering encounter with the Children of Lot.

It is an encounter that will test everything within Suzanne just to survive and get her students out of harm’s way. At every step, a new danger rears its horrible head, and she battles wits with the sly and crafty leader of the cult, who will stop at nothing to make sure God smiles on his people.

Buy it HERE on Amazon!

THE CRITICAL POINTS
Let me start by saying that I purchased this book from an author event where I got to meet and discuss the story with the actual author. He explained it as a horror story dealing with a cult. Intriguing, right? I thought so too. After reading it, I wouldn’t classify it as horror, it wasn’t scary – at least not to me – but it does deal with the gruesome details of a cult.

WRITING: The Children of Lot was Vic Kerry’s debut novel and although he has some wonderfully developed characters, the novel is riddled with editing issues and typos. This did not dissuade me from finished the story, but I know that there are many readers out there that would have put the book down after the first chapter. I only point this out because if you like cult stories, I want you to keep reading. Don’t give up just because of some typos and missed words.

Although this book wasn’t really my cup of tea, and I did find it to be a bit predictable, I will say that Kerry has created a solid story. There are no plot holes – he resolves every issue you can come up with – and his character development is perfect. You can picture each character and you know what their life was like before the book and even imagine what it will become long after the story within the books pages.

STORY: The Children of Lot takes place in the deep Alabama south, and tells the story of the Hassle family – A CULT – as they try to fulfil the scriptures found in the Book of Lot (a new book of the bible that their ancestors wrote). I won’t give anything away, you’ll have to read the book to find out what the Book of Lot says, but trust me you won’t find anything like it in the bible at church.

APPEARANCE: The cover shows a red barn off in the distance and a hanging dead pig in the forefront. It is gruesome, but it does relate perfectly to the story held within its pages. It isn’t a book I would have picked up if I had passed it in the book store, but I’m glad I stuck with it and read the full story.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE: I don’t have one with this book.

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

NOT YET RECORDED

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

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hopeless

TITLE: Hopeless
AUTHOR: Colleen Hoover

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (4.375)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
From #1 New York Times bestselling author of Finding Cinderella and Losing Hope, the beginning of Sky and Dean’s passionate love story—where well-kept secrets threaten to opens wounds of a dark past.

Would you rather know a truth that makes you feel hopeless, or keep believing the lies?

Beloved and bestselling author Colleen Hoover returns with the spellbinding story of two young people with devastating pasts who embark on a passionate, intriguing journey to discover the lessons of life, love, trust—and above all, the healing power that only truth can bring.

Sky, a senior in high school, meets Dean Holder, a guy with a promiscuous reputation that rivals her own. From their very first encounter, he terrifies and captivates her. Something about him sparks memories of her deeply troubled past, a time she’s tried so hard to bury. Though Sky is determined to stay far away from him, his unwavering pursuit and enigmatic smile break down her defenses and the intensity of the bond between them grows. But the mysterious Holder has been keeping secrets of his own, and once they are revealed, Sky is changed forever and her ability to trust may be a casualty of the truth.

Only by courageously facing the stark revelations can Sky and Holder hope to heal their emotional scars and find a way to live and love without boundaries. Hopeless is a novel that will leave you breathless, entranced, and remembering your own first love.

Buy it HERE on Amazon! 

THE CRITICAL POINTS

WRITING: I loved Hoover’s Never Never and Maybe Someday, so I was eager to read Hopeless. I can say this, she did not disappoint.

STORY: Hoover keeps her readers on the edge of their seat with the twists and turns she put into this shockingly realistic story. The love story, yes there is one, is amazing yet devastatingly heartbreaking. Sky and Dean have an unexplainable chemistry and sucks you in, wanting to know more about where their relationship will take them. The deeper you get in the book, the more you’re hoping things aren’t as bad as they seem. Although, if you’ve ever read a Hoover novel, you already know she doesn’t sugar coat her stories. In true Hoover fashion, she breaks your heart over and over again before the last page. This book is full of all the feels!!!

APPEARANCE: The cover is a beautiful depiction of how I imagine Sky to look.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE: “I want you to keep them open…because I need you to watch me give you the very last piece of my heart.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

NOT YET RECORDED

The Body by Stephen King

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The Body

TITLE: The Body
AUTHOR: Stephen King

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (5)

 

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine

#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King’s timeless novella “The Body”—originally published in his 1982 short story collection Different Seasons, and adapted into the 1986 film classic Stand by Me—now available for the first time as a stand-alone publication.

It’s 1960 in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. Ray Brower, a boy from a nearby town, has disappeared, and twelve-year-old Gordie Lachance and his three friends set out on a quest to find his body along the railroad tracks. During the course of their journey, Gordie, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio come to terms with death and the harsh truths of growing up in a small factory town that doesn’t offer much in the way of a future.

A timeless exploration of the loneliness and isolation of young adulthood, Stephen King’s The Body is an iconic, unforgettable, coming-of-age story.

Buy it HERE on Amazon! 

THE CRITICAL POINTS

WRITING: You already know how I feel about Stephen King’s writing style. He is the whole reason I feel in love with reading and this book is the reason. Actually, it was the movie, Stand by Me, that introduced me to Stephen King in the first place. I was eleven when Stand by Me was released and after seeing the movie, I immediately read the book and I was hooked from that point on.

STORY: If you’re like me, and you’ve read a lot of Stephen King, you’ll be surprised that this one is rather short. Instead of your typical 500+ pages, this short story comes in at just 179 pages. Don’t worry, he doesn’t skimp on the story. I feel like I’ve known Gordie Lachance, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio all my life. King has an amazing way of developing his characters without throwing everything in your face, but instead infusing them in your life.

APPEARANCE: The cover is perfectly illustrated with a depiction of the four boys running across the railroad track bridge. It’s a pivotal scene in the story, and was beautifully filmed in the movie.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE: “Vern’s head jerked bac over his shoulder. The surprise that distorted his face was almost comically exaggerated, written as large as the letters in a Dick and Jane primer. He saw me break into my clumsy, shambling run, dancing from one horribly high crosstie to the next, and knew I wasn’t joking. He began to run himself.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

Check out the official movie trailer here:
https://youtu.be/oYTfYsODWQo

Stand by Me

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A #@$! by Mark Manson

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SubtleTITLE: The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A #@%!
AUTHOR: Mark Manson

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: N/A
Appearance: ★★★
Overall: ★★★★ (4)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be “positive” all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.
For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. “F**k positivity,” Mark Manson says. “Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it.” In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.
Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited—”not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault.” Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.
There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.

Buy it HERE on Amazon! 

THE CRITICAL POINTS

WRITING: Mark Manson could be a comedian, easily. His writing style is fun, light, energetic, and full of laughs. However, it is also full of insight and wisdom.

STORY: Obviously, The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A #@%! Isn’t a novel – I’d classify it as self-help.

Mark covers so many important life lessons in this book, but some of the main topics that stood out to me were:

  • The Value of Suffering “If suffering is inevitable, if our problems in life are unavoidable, then the question we should be asking is not “How do I stop suffering?” but “Why am I suffering—for what purpose?””
  • The Choice “Choosing to not respond to the events in our lives is still a response to the events in our lives.”
  • Rejection Makes Your Life Better “…we need to reject something. Otherwise, we stand for nothing.”

This is a really quick read, with lots of relatable stories/examples throughout. So, if you are the type of person who is constantly GIVING A #@%! About everything… then this just might be the book for you. You’ll read it and laugh. You’ll read it an relate. You’ll read it and realize what you are doing wrong, could be doing better, and should be doing now to stop GIVING A #@%! about everything.

APPEARANCE: The cover shown above is very similar to the one I have, but also slightly different. Where this one says ‘THE SUBTLE ART OF NOT GIVING A F*UCK’ mine says, ‘THE SUBTLE ART OF NOT GIVING A #@%!’. I like the one I have better, no real reason other than #@%! Seems to be a bit subtler than F*UCK.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE: “The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

GONE by Lisa McMann

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TITLE: GONE
AUTHOR: Lisa McMann

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (4.5)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Things should be great for Janie—she has graduated from high school and is spending her summer with Cabel, the guy she’s totally in love with. But deep down she’s panicking about how she’s going to survive her future when getting sucked into other people’s dreams is really starting to take its toll.

Things get even more complicated when she meets her father for the very first time—and he’s in a coma. As Janie uncovers his secret past, she begins to realize that the choice thought she had has more dire consequences than she ever imagined.

Buy it HERE on Amazon! 

BOOK BLURB:
OPEN YOUR EYES.

Janie thought she knew what her future held. And she thought she’d made her peace with it. But she can’t handle dragging Cabel down with her.

She knows he will stay with her, despite what she sees in his dreams. He’s amazing. And she’s a train wreck. Janie sees only one way to give him the life he deserves: She has to disappear. And it’s going to kill them both.

Then a stranger enters her life—and everything unravels. The future Janie once faced now has an ominous twist, and her choices are more dire than she’d ever thought possible. She alone must decide between the lesser of two evils. And time is running out…

EXCERPT FOR GONE:
He reaches toward her, his fingers black and bloody, his eyes deranged, unblinking. Janie is paralyzed. His cold hands reach around her neck, squeezing tight, tighter, until Janie has no breath left. She’s unable to move, unable to think. As his grasp tightens further around Janie’s neck, his face turns sickly alabaster. He strains harder and begins to shake.

Janie is dying.

She has no fight left in her.

It’s over.

THE CRITICAL POINTS

WRITING: Out of all three of the books in this series, I think this is the only one that is truly YA. Lisa McMann’s writing style has been consistent and enjoyable although I think there were a few more typo’s and editing issues in this book than there were in the previous two books.

STORY: What would you do if out of nowhere the father you’ve never known is back in your life? The kicker… he is unconscious and dying.

Although I like the way GONE ended, it doesn’t feel like a true ending to the story. It seems like there could be another book to really tie up all the loose ends and give us closer with Janie and Cabel and what fate brings to her.

I’m looking forward to seeing what else Lisa McMann has written and what she come out with next.

APPEARANCE: There are two covers for this book. I have the simple black and green cover with the lonely chair in the middle. It is intriguing and grabbed my attention the moment I saw it. The other cover, with the photo of who I can only image is meant to be Janie and Cabel is not my favorite. I prefer to conger up the images of the characters on my own, as I read. These to people just don’t really bring the characters to life for me.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE: “I lurve you, too, you big lumpy monster man.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/egF8D-6DMyQ

Wake by Lisa McMann

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TITLE: WAKE
AUTHOR: Lisa McMann

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★ (4)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Not all dreams are sweet.

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people’s dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody- notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie’s seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can’t tell anybody about what she does — they’d never believe her, or worse, they’d think she’s a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn’t want and can’t control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else’s twisted psyche. She is a participant….

Buy it HERE on Amazon! 
THE CRITICAL POINTS

WRITING: This is a quick read. The style is unique in that it is broken down by date and time instead of chapters. It starts when Janie is a little girl and moves quickly with large breaks in time. Then, as she gets older and starts high school the breaks in time become smaller and smaller until they are hours or minutes apart. The result leaves the reader feeling like a voyeur, peaking in on Janie’s life. It is a very effective style for this story, but I don’t think it would work in every situation.

STORY: I picked this book up at a used bookstore, with no idea what it was about. When I read the back cover, I was instantly intrigued. As an author, about six months ago, I outlined a story idea that had to do with entering other people’s dreams. So, finding a book that dealt with the same topic, although very different, was exciting.

Overall, I think the story was interesting. You can empathize with Janie, as well as the other characters. You’re emotionally invested as a reader and want to know how Janie and Cabel will get out of their crappy home life situations and where the story will take them. There is a twist… which I will not give away… but it allows you some closure. If there were a stand-alone book, it would work. However, it isn’t and I’m very excited to read book 2 (FADE) which I had to order online. Book 3 (GONE) was available at the used bookstore and I picked it up when I bought this one. So, I’ll be reading that one soon enough.

APPEARANCE: There are two covers for this book. I have the simple back cover with the floating pillow and purple text. I love the simplicity of this cover – it was the reason I picked up the book in the first place. The second cover (see above) probably wouldn’t have caught my eye. I may have missed out on this book all together.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE: “Your seat adjustor you ass. We have to pull them together. It’s a bench seat. As you can see.”

I’m not really sure why this is my favorite quote. It just made me laugh really hard when I read it. I suppose it was just the perfect line to show the true Janie and how comfortable she was in that moment. There are other lines, ones with more emotion, more sentiment, more… just more, but this one made me laugh.

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/zSrvcuhzqcc

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

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Notebook

TITLE: The Notebook
AUTHOR: Nicholas Sparks

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★★
Overall: ★★★★★ (5)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
Every so often a love story so captures our hearts that it becomes more than a story-it becomes an experience to remember forever. The Notebook is such a book. It is a celebration of how passion can be ageless and timeless, a tale that moves us to laughter and tears and makes us believe in true love all over again… At thirty-one, Noah Calhoun, back in coastal North Carolina after World War II, is haunted by images of the girl he lost more than a decade earlier. At twenty-nine, socialite Allie Nelson is about to marry a wealthy lawyer, but she cannot stop thinking about the boy who long ago stole her heart. Thus begins the story of a love so enduring and deep it can turn tragedy into triumph, and may even have the power to create a miracle…

Buy it HERE on Amazon! 

BOOK JACKET BLURB:
THE NOTEBOOK is an achingly tender story about the enduring power of love, a story of miracles that will stay with you forever.

Set amid the austere beauty of coaster North Carolina in 1946, THE NOTEBOOK begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner returned home from World War II. Noah, thirty-one, is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories… until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again.

Allie Nelson, twenty-nine, is not engaged to another man, but realizes that the original passion she felt for Noah has not dimmed with the passage of time. Still, the obstacles that once ended their previous relationship remain, and the gulf between their worlds is too vast to ignore. With her impending marriage only weeks away, Allie is forced to confront her hopes and dreams for the future, a future that only she can shape.

Like a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just the beginning. As it unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something different, with much higher stakes. The result is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments and the fundamental changes that affect us all. Shining with a beauty that is rarely found in current literature, THE NOTEBOOK establishes Nicholas Sparks as a classic storyteller with a unique insight into the only emotion that really matters.

THE CRITICAL POINTS

WRITING: Nicholas Sparks has a way of transporting you, emotionally, into a world all his own. When I cracked the spine of this book, I found it hard to put it down. I was reluctant to leave Noah and Allie, wanting—needing—to know what would happen next in their epic adventure. If it weren’t for Sparks’ amazing writing style and his ability to engage the reader on a deeply emotional level, this could have been just about any other love story filling the Romance shelf of your local book store. Yet it isn’t. The Notebook stands out among the others as a true classic in my eyes.

STORY: WOW… Just WOW! I was delighted to find out that this story was based on the lives of Nicholas Sparks’ wife’s grandparents. To know that this kind of deep… unbendable… love exists doesn’t surprise me, as I am truly, madly, deeply in love with my own husband. However, to know that this kind of love, can withstand even the hardest of obstacles thrown at it, gives love a whole new meaning. I imagine this to be the kind of love my own fraternal grandparents must have shared. I remember as a child, watching them look into each other’s eyes in such a loving, longing way. Years into their marriage, and long past their youth, they still loved each other just as much as the day they first realized their love existed.

Nicholas Sparks’ story is a love story to which all love stories should be measured by. I won’t give anything away, because although I am tempted to tell you all about the story, from start to end, this is one book I don’t want to ruin for you. I want you to read it for yourself. I want you to experience it first hand, take the journey with Noah and his beloved, and find out what fourteen years apart can do to the “love” they shared during their fairytale summer romance.

APPEARANCE: The cover is simple, the view from Noah’s front porch. At first glance, the cover reminded me of On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson. The cover didn’t draw me in, at first, but as I read I longed to sit on that porch and see the world through Noah’s eyes.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE: “…But most of all, I learned that life is about sitting on benches next to ancient creeks with my hand on her knee and sometimes, on good days, for falling in love.”

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/SIPhi_g1d10

Check out the official movie trailers here:

https://youtu.be/yDJIcYE32NU
https://youtu.be/FC6biTjEyZw

Scenes from the movie:

https://youtu.be/Z22EAeIIZM0
https://youtu.be/E1I0hAxGFXw
https://youtu.be/EemLsTG5fX8

Pretty Little Dead Girls by Mercedes M. Yardley

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Pretty

TITLE: Pretty Little Dead Girls
AUTHOR: Mercedes M. Yardley

RATING OVERVIEW
Writing: ★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★
Appearance: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★ (3.5)

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:
“Run, Star Girl.” Bryony Adams is destined to be murdered, but fortunately Fate has terrible marksmanship. In order to survive, she must run as far and as fast as she can. After arriving in Seattle, Bryony befriends a tortured musician, a market fish-thrower, and a starry-eyed hero who is secretly a serial killer bent on fulfilling Bryony’s dark destiny. Mercedes M. Yardley’s Pretty Little Dead Girls: A Novel of Murder and Whimsy is a dark, lovely fairy tale with lyrical language and a high body count, and features a cover by Hugo award-winner Galen Dara. Includes “Oliver Bloom” by Ryan Johnson, a short story featuring characters from Pretty Little Dead Girls.

Buy it HERE on Amazon! 

THE CRITICAL POINTS

Let me start by saying I know I’m in a minority with this book review. I’ve seen the amazon reviews… Pretty Little Dead Girls has an average of 5 stars with 82 reviews and that is awesome! I guess this narrative style of writing just really isn’t my cup of tea. Or maybe it isn’t the narration, its more that every character seems to have the same voice… but more of that later, when I talk about characters. 

With all that said – I still think that Mercedes M Yardley is a talented writer, and I do plan on reading more of her work.

WRITING: I have never read anything like this… The author writes from a narrator’s point of view, but instead of standing outside the story and telling you what happens, the narrator speaks directly to the reader. Addressing the reader, outside the context of the story, is very jarring.

STORY: Right from the start of the story, the reader is intrigued. We’re told that Bryony is the type of girl who gets murdered. We don’t know why, but we accept it as truth. Starting on page one, you are drawn in and you start searching each new character you meet to find out if they might be the one to murder Bryony.

This is when the story falls apart for me. I’m intrigued by the concept of the story, the idea that this girl has a destiny that is so plainly clear to everyone, but it’s never explained. We never – throughout the whole book – learn why she is destined to be murdered or who EVERYONE KNOWS IT! The whole story is about how she is destined to be murdered, everyone knows it and tries to protect her, and how she escapes her destiny as people around her die.

I just felt like the potential was there for this to be a really amazing story, but it fell flat for me.

CHARACTERS: I’m not really sure how to describe the characters in this book. Honestly, they all feel the same, other than Bryony. Because everything is told from the Narrator’s point of view, everyone seems to speak in the same voice. I think the part that really threw me, was when there was a full conversation, between Bryony (our lead) and the Murderer, using only eye contact. A conversation that was so absurd… so ridiculous in the moment… that it pulled me right out of the story. This is only one example of many, where I found myself shaking my head and asking myself, “why am I still reading?” Yet, I read it from page one until the end. 

APPEARANCE: The cover was designed by Galen Dara, and the artwork is truly beautiful. Reading the story, I didn’t really envision Bryony looking like the girl on the cover, but that didn’t take anything away from the book for me.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE: “Bryony Adams was the type of girl who got murdered.” It’s the first sentence of the book and immediately draws you in.

Check out my YouTube channel and the video review below… and make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss a video.

https://youtu.be/7PRSrwVQ8RY