Wrecked by Anna Davies

For this next review, be prepared for some disappointment.

Wrecked by Anna Davies

Synopsis:

Ever since the death of her parents, Miranda has lived on Whym Island, taking comfort in the local folklore, which claims a mysterious sea witch controls the fate of all on the island and in its surrounding waters. Sometimes it’s just easier to believe things are out of your control.

But then a terrible boating accident takes the lives of several of her friends, and Miranda is rescued by a mysterious boy who haunts her dreams. Consumed by guilt from the accident, she finds refuge in late-night swims—and meets Christian, a boy who seems eerily familiar, but who is full of mystery: He won’t tell her where he is from, or why they can only meet at the beach. But Miranda falls for him anyway…and discovers that Christian’s secrets, though meant to protect her, may bring her nothing but harm.

Seductive and compelling, Wrecked brings a contemporary, paranormal twist to a classic enchanting tale.

Review:   After the accident that took the lives of several of orphan Miranda's friends, shes rescued by some mysterious boy that she seem to get out of her head. Miranda is overcome with guilt of being one of the only survivors  and finds solace in the swims she's begun to take alone at night. That's when she meets Christian, a very mysterious boy that only seems to appear when she's on the beach. But as she begins to fall for the dark and mysterious Christian she starts to learn all his secrets, Miranda learns that being in love with him just might bring her to the demise that she escaped only months ago. It turns out that Christian is a merman of sorts, and was the one to save her form the accident.  But he also serves the sea witch that rules over the waters that surround Miranda's small town, and she isn't too happy that Miranda escaped her the first time....

Characters: I have to say, Miranda was kinda disappointing. I felt like she was lacking something that made her and her story believable, like the way she acted at the very end of the book. After the death of her friends, one of which was her boyfriend, she kinda disappears into herself, which is understandable. But then she suddenly seems to get over her boyfriend, who she claims to have loved, and move onto Christian. Also, her actions at the end of the book lead me to believe that her feelings weren't real in the first place. She makes crappy choices through the entire book, and doesn't seem to care about anyone else's emotions. And Christian, looks aside, was only likable. There wasn't anything that made you root for him to get the girl or want him to win. 

Romance: Like the Christian, the romance in this book was only okay. It was lacking at times, but overall, it was just.... Meh. And it was like Davies couldn't decide what pace she wanted it to go at. It was really fast and good, and then it would slow down, and get boring. And they were constantly progressing and re-progressing. You either want to be with him, or you don't, make up your mind!! It was like the author would just get bored with it, and then interested, and then board again. It felt like the romance was there out of obligation, and was forced.

Intro & Ending: The beginning of this book was pretty well written. It got you hooked, and moved at a pretty good pace, that didn't stay with it the entire book. The ending, however, was terrible. Not only was it sad and depressing, but it made you question the characters and why you read this book in the first place. It might have been that way, because supposedly it was meant to be a new spin on the classic tale of the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version), however, no one wants to read a book that ends so sadly and horribly that you wished you hadn't spent the money on it in the first place. And the fact that there is no word of a second book in the works doesn't make ending any better. In fact, it probably makes it worse. 

Rating: Overall, I have to give this book an 2 out of 5. I liked the way it was inspired by the original Little Mermaid tale, but it was diminished by poor characters, shoddy romance, and an ending so bad, you want to write a second book yourself to correct its errors. 

Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck

And now, for blog post number 2, another one of my favorites...


Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck

Synopsis:
Passion. Fate. Loyalty.

Would you risk it all to change your destiny?

The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she'd be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world.

But that's exactly what happened.

Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.

Tiger's Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more.

Summary: Kelsey Hayes, 18-years old, fresh out of High-school and ready to take on the world. Well, until the fall when she starts Chemeketa Community College, in her home state of Oregon. With her long deceased parents out of the picture Kelsey doesn't see much of a life ahead of her: college, a job and, most likely, a lonely adult hood. But until then she gets a job as a temp. for a small, family-run circus where she sells tickets, cleans up after the shows and cares for the circuses’ white majestic tiger, Dhiren. But when a mysterious stranger comes to buy the tiger and take it back to India, Kelsey realizes she’s come to care for the gentle beast with mesmerizing cobalt blue eyes, and ends up being offered the job to make sure Ren (the tiger) gets to the Tiger Reserve safely. While in India she learns a secret about Ren- the gentle, lovable beast she's come to love- that will change the course of her life forever. It turns out that her tiger, isn't actually a tiger. He's a man, and not just an ordinary man either. He's a 350-year-old Prince of and an long forgotten Indian empire that was overtaken by an evil sorcerer after he cursed Dhiren and his brother Kishan  to live immortal lives as tigers, except for a few precious minutes of each day, where they can transform back into the men they once were, until they break their curse. But in order to break the curse, they need the help of Durga's (a Hindu goddess) chosen one. And who does that happen to be? Kelsey of course! As Kelsey and Ren set out to break his and Kishan's curse, Kelsey begins to realize that she not only has feelings for the beast part of Ren, but for the man as well...

Characters: Out of all the Book Boyfriends that I have, Ren and Kishan have to be one of my all-time favorites. Not only are they total gentlemen,  but with Rens lovely poems and Kishans darker past you can't help but love them! (It also doesn't hurt that they both are really attractive. Just saying) Kelsey is also one of my favorite heroines. She's very relatable and just about everyone can find a part of you in her. When it come's to guys, sometimes you really just kinda want to slap her, but then again, I feel like that's what makes her more real. She isn't this perfect, beautiful girl, who can navigate guys like a seasoned sailor, she's learning as she goes along. Throughout the series, you really see this trio grow together and individually.

Romance: This also has to be one of my favorite romances in a series as well. I hadn't read a lot of books with a love triangle in them before this, and even though it doesn't really come into play in this book, there is some easily spotted foreshadows of it for later. But the main romance in this book was really nice. You could tell that Colleen didn't want it to be insta-love, and have her character's all over each other the entire time, and she knew how she wanted this relationship to go, which was kinda nice. With that said, it also wasn't. Remember how I said that Kelsey isn't really that well of a seasoned sailor on the love boat just yet? Shes just kinda stumbling across the deck in this book, and at times it was kinda infuriating. But I feel like it was a good way for Houck to show that this relationship was going to go like any other one, and that they were both going to screw up occasionally.

Mythology: Tiger's Curse was the first book that I've read to have Hindu Gods or mythology in it, and I'm glad to say it doesn't disappoint  Because Kelsey is learning about the culture at the same time you are, Houck does a really good job of making things understandable for you, so even someone who knows next to nothing about Hinduism can understand the bare bones that you need to understand this series.

Originality: According to Colleen, this book was inspired by the Twilight saga. But wait! Don't think that because Colleen was inspired by a book that has so many diverse feelings towards it is another Edward-Jacob-Bella story! The only thing that this book and Twilight have in common is that they both have love triangles. But that's as close as it gets. With it's setting in India, and the fact that they're trying to break an ancient curse Tiger's Curse is a book all it's own.

Rating: With it's unique story line, and real character's, amazing detail, and hot guys, I have to give this book 5 stars. Because of it's extensively thought-out plot, it moves at a decent pace, and there isn't a whole ton of dilly-dallying. This book is book one of a 5 book series, and is also in the writing stage of being a movie, so make sure to pick it up pre-movie hype!!!

Welcome and Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello people of the Internet! This is Chely, coming at you live from my computer! On this blog we I'll talk about many things, mostly books though because, after all, this is a Book blog. But first, a little about me. My name is Chely, and I love books with a burning passion that cannot be contained. I love books of all kinds, and have a small, but compact, shelf of books in my room that holds more than one-hundred-and-twenty books (I counted). I try to read a variety of books, but it appears that at a young age, I'm a hopeless romantic (wait, scratch that. Hopeful romantic, I'm too young to be hopeless), and tend to read books with some sort of paranormal something, because I typically find real life boring.  This is my first Blog, so please be patient with me as I lean the trade and rules of the Blog world, and forgive me for my errors, as I try and work out the kinks I know are bound to happen here. And another thing, I can be pretty terrible at spelling, so please forgive me for any spelling and punctuation errors that can, and will happen.

I will try and have a variety of books, older and newer, and I will constantly need suggestions on what everyone want me to read and review. I can't promise that I'll read them all, due to how much it will cost me, and the fact that I have other things I need to accomplish during the week. I'll try to post once a week, at the least. Oh, and don't be surprised if you see a movie reference here and there. I absolutely adore movies, and if books didn't exist, this would probably be a movie blog. Just to give you an idea about how much I love movies, I have one going in the background as I type this.

So enough about me, lets get to the books! For my very first blog post, I've picked one of my favorites:

Original Cover

Uglies By Scott Westerfeld 

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and can't wait. In just a few weeks she'll have the operation that will turn her from a repellent ugly into a stunning pretty. And as a pretty, be catapulted into a high-tech paradise where her only job is to have fun.
But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to become a pretty. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world-and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally a choice: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. Tally's choice will change her world forever.

New Cover

Summary: Tally is just an average fifteen-year-old, she just wants to fit in. But she lives in a dystopian world where the face you were born with is considered ugly, and your only considered 'pretty' if you're sixteen, and had the operation that completely changes who you are- inside, and out. This operation gives you new, unblemished skin, big eyes, full lips, and symmetrical features. But this operation changes among lots of other things, like your mind.  When her friend Paris turns sixteen, gets the operation, and moves into New Pretty Town, a place for pretties only, all Tally wants to do is get the operation, and join him at the wild parties and events that take place in New Pretty Town. But when Tally makes a new friend named Shay, they get along great, except for when it comes to the subject of the operation. Unlike all the other fifteen-year-olds, Shay doesn't seem to want to become a pretty. And right before her sixteenth birthday, Shay disappears, leaving Tally a note that only she will understand with directions on how to find her. But Shays sudden vanishing act has more impact on Tally's life than she knows. On her sixteenth birthday, when Tally is suppose to finally get her operation, she learns there is more to her Ugly world that she knows. The people who control her world give her a choice: find Shay and the new crowd she's running with and then turn her in, or never become pretty, which is all Tally has ever wanted. To avoid being a social outcast for the rest of her life, Tally heads off to find Shay, on an wild and scary adventure, filled with crazy obstacles.When she eventually finds Shay, shes surprised by what she finds: a whole thriving society of people determined to not be pretty, who live in a place called the Smoke, and they accept her with open arms. It's there she learns something important about the operation: being pretty, isn't all its thought to be. With this new information Tally has to make a choice: betray her new friends in the Smoke, or get the outer beauty she's always dreamed of.


Characters: This book has a slew of lovable characters. You really get to know Tally and how she thinks before you jump right into the story. Also, Tally is and isn't too different from the fifteen-year-olds nowadays. She wants to fit in, but stand out, and she wants to do the right thing, but she isn't quite sure what that is. And as Tally struggles with right and wrong, you begin to see her grow as she's trying to make her choice. Shay has become one of my favorite co-characters, as I call them. People who are important to the story, but it isn't all about them. She's basically the reckless friend that's a bad influence on you, and your parents wish that you two had never met.

Romance: Though it's not really expected, there is some romance throughout the book. But don't expect to start reading and be greeted by an kissing scene. This well-developed romance happens in the later half of the book. You can tell that the romance was well thought-out and planned because it played a part in the story, unlike some books who seem to have a last-second idea to throw a love interest in there. This romance is important to the story, and plays an important roll later on in the series. 

Intro & Ending: The very beginning is a bit hard to get into, due to the fact that the author has created a world all his own, with technological advances that you have no idea about (i.e. hoverboard, interface ring, ect.) but Westerfeld does a good job guiding you through it, so that eventually you know and understand what each object does. The ending left me shocked and wanting more. It's not a cliffhanger exactly, but it leaves you wanting to know what happens next. Lucky for you, the other three books have long since come out. 

Originality: This is probably a category that you don't see in most reviews. I think it's very important for authors to come up with their own stories, own ideas. I hate it when I'm reading a book and I can totally tell what inspired that part of the book because of how similar it is! But in this book, you have no idea what inspired it, it's all his own creation. Westerfeld has created a world entirely his own, and invented things that make me wish to be part of the story. Writing from the future is difficult for some, because you have to think of what happened in the past. But Westerfeld has come up with enough information on the fictional history in this story to be a short history lesson! Not only has he created a new world, but also the reason that world was created, and its not confusing to the reader, which is a bonus. For Originality, I'd give this book a 5 out of 5.

Rating: Overall, this book is getting a rating of 5 out of 5 stars. It was totally original, with lots of twists, and turns that leave you surprised. With a hint of unexpected romance, this book has it all. Not only is it dystopian, but it address the idea that you shouldn't have to go along with what society thinks is 'pretty'. Uglies is a book suited for just about any age, and with it being the first book in a four-part series, it leaves you wanting more.




Well, my movie has started to roll its credits, and the fact that I've looked up at it long enough to notice that means I've finished my first blog entry. And I have to say, it feels pretty good. Hope you enjoyed this blog as much as I did writing it, and I hope that you read more from here in the future. Enjoy your books!