Tag: four stars

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Review of Promised by Caragh M. O’Brien

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PROMISED by Caragh M. O’Brian

SUMMARY:

After defying the ruthless Enclave, surviving the wasteland, and upending the rigid matriarchy of Sylum, Gaia Stone now faces her biggest challenge ever.  She must lead the people of Sylum back to the Enclave and persuade the Protectorat to grant them refuge from the wasteland.  In Gaia’s absence, the Enclave has grown more cruel, more desperate to experiment on mothers from outside the wall, and now the stakes of cooperating or rebelling have never been higher.  Is Gaia ready, as a leader, to sacrifice what–or whom–she loves most?

THOUGHTS: What a great ending to this series! I really enjoyed this whole trilogy and definitely recommend it.

FOUR STARS
RECOMMEND

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Review of Life As We Knew It: Susan Beth Pfeffer

I was in the mood for a good THE SKY IS FALLING book and so I picked this one up not expecting too much and was pleasantly surprised. It’s about what happens to the world when a meteor hits the moon and knocks it a little closer to earth. What that does to the tides (huge tsunamis) and causes volcanos to erupt and well, ya, it’s not a good scenario. The book is written in journal form, which normally annoys me, but this time I thought it really added to the story.
The story is actually a duet and continues with The World We Live In which I felt really tied up some loose ends and ended this girls story pretty well.
I recommend.

Amazon Description of: Life As We Knew It:

I guess I always felt even if the world came to an end, McDonald’s still would be open.
High school sophomore Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when an asteroid knocks the moon closer to Earth, the way “one marble hits another.” The result is catastrophic. How can her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis are wiping out the coasts, earthquakes are rocking the continents, and volcanic ash is blocking out the sun? As August turns dark and wintry in northeastern Pennsylvania, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.
Told in a year’s worth of journal entries, this heart-pounding story chronicles Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all—hope—in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world. An extraordinary series debut!
  • Paperback: 360 pages
  • Publisher: Graphia; 1 edition (May 1, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0152061541
Amazon Description for This World We Live In:

 

In the year that has passed since a meteor collided with the moon, Miranda’s friends and neighbors have died, the landscape has frozen, and food has become increasingly scarce. The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda’s father and stepmother arrive with a baby and three strangers in tow. One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda’s complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for his future thwart their relationship. Then a devastating tornado hits, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever.

  • Paperback: 252 pages
  • Publisher: Graphia; Reprint edition (April 18, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0547550286
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Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: Ransom Riggs

This was such a fun book! It was a little creepy and a lot of fun. One thing that I thought was really cool was the way he incorporated all these true life vintage photos into the book (the photos were real, obviously the story is not). I was reading it on my Kindle so the photos definitely were not done justice, but I bet in hardback, the book is really awesome. I love how he incorporated the photos into the story. It did not distract in any way, but really added to it.
Anyways, I don’t want to give too much away because the story really unfolds sort of like an old school fairy tale. I give it 4 stars and totally recommend!

Amazon Description:
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Quirk Books; Book Club edition (June 7, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1594744769

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The Kane Chronicles Book One and Two: Rick Riordan

 Rick Riordan is just a great story teller. Specifically he is a great mythical storyteller. I’ve always been fascinated with ancient lore and mythology and his books have been extremely easy and enjoyable reads. If you haven’t read the Percy Jackson or the Lost Hero series yet, you’re missing out. They are very “young adult” (especially the first few of Percy Jackson) but as the heroes progress, so do the books in terms of being a bit more enjoyable for adults. 

This series is Rick’s take on Egyptian mythology and I loved it and am definitely going to be getting book three when it comes out in May. Again, it’s written for a YA audience, but at over 500 pages it keeps you engaged. I also love how all three series are referenced in each series… pretty cool how it’s all woven together.

4 stars and recommend.

Amazon Red Pyramid Description:
Since their mother’s death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane. 

One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a “research experiment” at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.
 
Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them–Set–has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe — a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: Hyperion Book CH; Reprint edition (August 16, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1423113454
Amazon Throne of Fire Description:

In this exciting second installment of the three-book series, Carter and Sadie, offspring of the brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane, embark on a worldwide search for the Book of Ra, but the House of Life and the gods of chaos are determined to stop them. 

  • Hardcover: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (May 3, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1423140567
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Review of Clockwork Prince: Cassandra Clare

I’ve got to say, I love me some Cassandra Clare. I was hooked on the Immortal Instrument Series and love this series as well. It’s a Steampunk genre yet set in the same world, just a few hundred years earlier. This is the second book in a series, coming after Clockwork Angel.
This is a “Angel” book, or sort of. Has anyone else noticed the over saturation of Angel/Demon Paranormal romances out there? I’m not a huge fan and it’s getting old. HOWEVER, Clare and her Immortal Instrument series predated the craze and may have even started the craze in my opinion. Ok, I’m off track. Anyways, it’s a great second book in the series. Obviously you need to read the first one to make any sense of it. The lead girl is a little “angsty” if you know what I mean, kind of annoying at times. So I give this 4 stars and recommend it.

Amazon Description:

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.

  • Hardcover: 528 pages
  • Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books; 1ST edition (December 6, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1416975888