Tag: four stars

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The Dark Divine: Bree Despain

So I was about to start The Maze Runner when Amy over at Reading Teen suggested I read the Dark Divine (FYI definitely look at Reading Teen for some great – and way more updated- book recommendations). She said it was one of her favorite books of 2010 and I must say, it was a great book!

An intriguing storyline and easy to read, but I think what I enjoyed most about it was it was wholesome. I’m not sure if it would be considered a “Christian” book, but it definitely is whether the author intended to or not.

It’s one of those books I don’t cringe when I hear a younger (12-ish) year old girl is reading.

It has the same great intrigue for vampire/werewolf/demon creature thingies that I tend to like to read about.

My only drawback is it definitely is a “Young Adult” book and is written for that audience, not for moms who like YA books 🙂

4 stars and recommend it!

Amazon Summary:
With its eye-catching cover (pale, slender legs with purple toenails entwine with purple chiffon on a black background), intriguing title, and the hook of werewolves in love, comparisons to Meyer’s Twilight series are inevitable. However, Despain roots her story firmly in the faith of her protagonist’s family. Sixteen-year-old Grace Divine is a pastor’s daughter and has heard every joke possible about her name. But her family practices what her father preaches: community, caring, and forgiveness, including taking in a neighbor’s abused child and raising him as their own. That boy, Daniel, and Grace fall in love, and when Daniel reveals that he is a werewolf, Pastor Divine searches for remedies while trying to keep his family safe. Though the romantic passages are predictable and characterization sometimes weak, Despain raises complex issues of responsibility and forgiveness and offers no easy answers. Atmospheric and compelling, Despain’s first novel will be popular, and a sequel eagerly anticipated.

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: EgmontUSA (November 23, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1606841548
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Water For Elephants: Sara Gruen

So I need to be honest. I have a huge crush on Robert Pattinson (as any good Twilight Girl does) and when I saw that he was going to be in a new movie with Reese Witherspoon called Water for Elephants AND I found out it was a best selling novel, well I just had to read it.

Now this book was very interesting and I felt it was a great read.

HOWEVER, definitely not suitable for young readers. It’s quite naughty in many parts, but I thought the entire story and all the back information on circus life in the 1930’s was SO interesting!

I definitely recommend it TO ADULTS and give it 4 stars.

Amazon Summary:
With its spotlight on elephants, Gruen’s romantic page-turner hinges on the human-animal bonds that drove her debut and its sequel (Riding Lessons and Flying Changes)—but without the mass appeal that horses hold. The novel, told in flashback by nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski, recounts the wild and wonderful period he spent with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a traveling circus he joined during the Great Depression. When 23-year-old Jankowski learns that his parents have been killed in a car crash, leaving him penniless, he drops out of Cornell veterinary school and parlays his expertise with animals into a job with the circus, where he cares for a menagerie of exotic creatures[…] He also falls in love with Marlena, one of the show’s star performers—a romance complicated by Marlena’s husband, the unbalanced, sadistic circus boss who beats both his wife and the animals Jankowski cares for. Despite her often clichéd prose and the predictability of the story’s ending, Gruen skillfully humanizes the midgets, drunks, rubes and freaks who populate her book.

  • Paperback: 350 pages
  • Publisher: Algonquin Books (April 9, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1565125606
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Sapphique: Catherine Fisher

Great follow up book to Incarceron!

It was one of those books I thought about when I wasn’t reading it and dreamt weird dreams.

I really enjoyed it and totally recommend it with 4 stars!

Amazon Summary:
icking up after the surprising revelations of Incarceron (Dial, 2010), Fisher abruptly returns readers to the dystopian world and its living prison. Still trapped inside, Attia and Keiro are doing whatever they can to survive on their quest to find the Outside. Finn, meanwhile, has escaped and is now preparing to take his place on the Realm’s throne. Not completely convinced, Claudia and Jared are attempting to groom Finn to take his place as Prince Giles. Things are almost on track when a Pretender makes a bid for the throne, threatening both Finn’s and Claudia’s lives. Amid the discordance in the Realm, Incarceron itself hunts for Sapphique’s famed glove, an object that may help the prison gain a human body. Now, Attia, Keiro, and the Warden are attempting to keep the glove from Incarceron, while Finn, Jared, and Claudia are trying to hold the Realm together from the Outside. Fisher again crafts a dark, interesting foray into vivid imagery, danger, surprising twists, and intriguing revelations. This story is not quite as strong as Incarceron, but return readers will nonetheless enjoy it; new readers should, however, be steered back to the first volume. Readers will be left breathless hoping for another installment to explore the repercussions brought on by everything that happens in Sapphique’s final chapters.

  • Hardcover: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Dial; Reprint edition (December 28, 2010)
  • Language: English
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Review of Incarceron: Catherine Fisher

So it’s no big shock that I love books that involve the world we live in destroying itself and the survivors creating a new world.

I just like the premise and enjoy reading people’s theories through fiction on what that new world could look like.

This is a really great book and I read they are making a movie of it and Taylor Lautner (Jacob from the Twilight movies) is going to play Finn. Hmmm….

Anyways, totally enjoyed this book and the follow up one Sapphique.

4 stars and recommend it!

Amazon Summary:
Catherine Fisher’s intelligent, genre-bending tale (Dial, 2010) will fascinate teens looking for something new and different. Finn is a 17-year old prisoner of Incarceron. His memories begin and end there. He knows nothing about his heritage except for vague memories that tease at his mind. The teen is determined to escape the prison fashioned centuries ago as a solution to the chaos created by man. Now Incarceron is self-sustaining and self-perpetuating—prisoners are born there and they die there. Legend claims only one man has ever escaped, Sapphique, and Finn is determined to follow in his steps. Claudia, the warden’s daughter, lives sequestered in a castle surrounded by servants. But she, too, longs for escape—from a father who frightens her and from betrothal to an insipid prince. Finn and Claudia each discover a crystal key and are amazed to find that they can communicate with each other. As their trust in one another builds, each pledges to help the other. The two stories emerge, intertwine and, by the end, unwind in startling twists that will astonish listeners. Kim Mai Guest delivers an amazing, fully-voiced performance that vividly paints each character.

  • Hardcover: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Dial; 1 edition (January 26, 2010)
  • Language: English
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Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices Book 1): Cassandra Clare

So I was a big fan of the Mortal Instruments series so I was happy to hear that she was continuing the whole series with a new set of characters, set in an earlier time.
I really enjoyed the book, although I must say I liked the first one better. But this was just the first book. I think I just liked the lead male better in the Mortal Instruments series than this book, but I’m open 🙂

I would give it 4 stars and recommend it, especially if you liked the Mortal Instruments.

  • Reading level: Young Adult
  • Hardcover: 496 pages
  • Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry (August 31, 2010)
  • Language: English