REVEW: The Evolution Of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Title: The Evolution Of Mara Dyer (The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer, 2#)

Author: Michelle Hodkin

Format: Ebook

Pages: 507

Rating: 5/5Blurb:

Mara Dyer once believed she could run from her past.

She can’t.

She used to think her problems were all in her head.

They aren’t.

She couldn’t imagine that after everything she’s been through, the boy she loves would still be keeping secrets.

She’s wrong.

In this gripping sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, the truth evolves and choices prove deadly. What will become of Mara Dyer next?

Review:

Holy Shit.

Holy Shit.

Holy Shit!

It has been five minutes max from finishing “The Evolution Of Mara Dyer,” and it blew my mind in everyway possible. Not only are the characters realistic with the choice of dialogue for each character, it is hell creepy. Young Adult books usually don’t creep me out, but this is one exception. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out. I expected way more from “The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer,” as the hype that was built with it was humungous and I wasn’t truly very happy with it, but the second one has skipped to all the conventions of a season finale of a tv show or a last book in a gigantic series. It was surprise after surprise and I just loved it. There were many parts that confused me and made me think, “Woah, what the hell is going on here.” But they were kind of explained so that is always good in the end isn’t it? Overall, I thought this was one of the best sequel books I have ever read to a series and I now realise that the publishers must’ve read the second book or something to pick this up (Wink wink). I cannot wait for the next book and see where the letter from the first book has connected with this whole series.

Spoiler: This book could be divided to two books, and I would clearly cut it off for when she went of to the inpatient retreat. Truly, I had thought the part where Jude had kidnapped Mara was the climax of the whole book, and I was so wrong! That ending! It blew my mind! It was intense and it broke my heart.

What really annoyed me were all the employees of the mental hospital and Mara’s mum. Seriously? You wouldn’t seriously do that to your daughter! What is wrong with you.

Just to clear it up.

I definitely don’t think that Noah is dead. So I’m not worried about him. 

REVIEW: The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell

Title: The Carrie Diaries (The Carries Diaries #1)

Author: Candace Bushnell

Publication Date: December 26^th 2012

Publisher: Balzer and Bray

Format: Paperback

Pages: 389

Rating: 4/5
Blurb: This #1 New York Times bestselling prequel to Sex and the City is now a CW TV series!

The Carrie Diaries is the coming-of-age story of Carrie Bradshaw, one of the most iconic characters of New York City and our generation.

Before Sex and the City, Carrie was a small-town girl who knew she wanted more. She's ready for real life to start, but first she must navigate her senior year of high school.

Up until now, Carrie and her friends have been inseparable. Then Sebastian Kydd comes into the picture, and a friend's betrayal makes her question everything.

With an unforgettable cast of characters, The Carrie Diaries is the story of how a regular girl learns to think for herself and evolves into a sharp, insightful writer. Readers will learn about her family background, how she found her writing voice, and the indelible impression her early friendships and relationships left on her. Through adventures both audacious and poignant, we'll see what brings Carrie to her beloved New York City, where her new life begins.

Review: As the summary says up there, The Carrie Diaries has been made into a TV series by the CW and I would be totally lying if I said that the trailer of said TV series wasn’t the primary reason as to why I picked this book up. AnnaSophia Robb? Austin Butler? But most important, Freema Agyeman? (Not even going to hide by Whovian-ness) The trailer looked amazing and so this book became part of the massive TBR pile that is my life.

I’d never read or seen Sex and the City so I knew next to absolutely nothing about Carrie Bradshaw at all but that wasn’t going to stop me from enjoying this book. There were many things I liked about this book- I liked that it was fun and quick, I didn’t really have to think to hard about what was going to happen and why, instead I was able to just breeze through it and enjoy myself while doing that. I also really liked the writing side of the book, as in Carrie’s writing, as a wannabee writer myself, I felt like I was really able to connect to the struggles Carrie was going through in high school, with her friends and with her writing.

This being said, I found certain parts of the book to be just a little too predictable or ridiculous for my liking. I wasn’t really a fan of Sebastian Kydd, or him and Carrie together. Those moments made me want to reach into the book and strangle Carrie a few times, but I managed to refrain- well that and I can’t actually strangle a fictional character.

Sometime in the near future I will do a full scale book to television adaptation post, but I’ll leave that until I catch up on all of the episodes. I will however mention that there are parts of the television series that I much prefer- Sebastian for one, he is much less of a dickhead in the show (or at least I think so), but I also like how the relationship between Carrie and him is set out- I thought it was much more realistic, I’m only hoping it doesn’t end up going down the same road as the book.

REVIEW: Heaven by Alexandra Adornetto

Title: Heaven (Halo #3)

Author: Alexandra Adornetto

Publication Date: August 21^st 2012

Publisher: Harper Collins

Format: Paperback

Pages: 422

Rating: 4/5
Blurb: Only sixteen when she started the series, Ally Adornetto knows how teen hearts beat, and this long-awaited conclusion is certain to be her most popular book yet.

Bethany, an angel sent to Earth, and her mortal boyfriend, Xavier, have been to Hell and back. But now their love will be put to its highest test yet, as they defy Heavenly law and marry. They don’t tell Beth’s archangel siblings, Gabriel and Ivy, but the angels know soon enough, and punishment comes in a terrifying form: the Sevens, who are rogue angels bent on keeping Beth and Xavier apart, destroying Gabriel and Ivy, and darkening angelic power in the heavens.

The only way Bethany and can elude the Sevens is to hide in the open, and blend in with other mortals their own age. Gabriel and Ivy set them up at college, where they can’t reveal their relationship, and where there is still danger around each corner. Will Bethany be called back to Heaven – forever – and face leaving the love of her life?

Review: I’ll be the first one to admit that I wasn’t a massive fan of Halo, I enjoyed Hades but I didn’t know quite how I would feel about the conclusion of this series. That is the major reason why I didn’t pick up this book sooner- I’d seen it around plenty of times in bookstores and elsewhere but I wasn’t sure at those times whether I even wanted to finish this series. Eventually I spied a copy in my school library, told myself to suck it up and just read the last book and then another series would be completed. Even after that, this book sat on my shelves for a good two weeks before I picked it up, read 26 pages and put it right back down again. I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t subject myself to the torture I thought this book would be after those first couple of pages. It took me another week before I picked it up again, and this time I read it for real.

Despite my initial fears, it wasn’t terrible. For a while there I was worried, I actually had to force myself to get through some of the chapters, while others I just breezed through without any thought to it at all. After the first couple of chapters or so, I realized that for the majority of the book I was actually enjoying what I was reading. I was never really a big fan of Beth or Xavier, but for some reason I really loved Ivy (odd, I know) but by far, my favourite character was Jake, so I was a little sad when he didn’t really appear in this one at all (trying to avoid spoilers here). I was kind of hoping that he would be in it a lot more, though I was glad to see the end of a love triangle- there were actually moments when that it seemed like it was going to go down that road again, but those fears were quickly diverted and I was happy again. 

I wasn’t really into the whole Gabriel/Molly thing, at least I was until this book and then I realised how much I didn’t want it. Speaking of love, I would have liked to see part of the plot not revolve completely around the love of Beth and Xavier- I get it, they love each other lots, it’s forbidden etc. etc. Can we please have something a little different?

Finally, that ending. It wasn’t what I was expecting to happen, but I don’t know how to describe how I felt about it. I was happy the series was over, but also slightly disappointing in the end- I’m not even really sure.

If you’d like to read my reviews of Halo and Hades, you can find them here and here respectively.

REVIEW: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Title: Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Author: Truman Capote

Publication Date: September 1^st 2008 (first published 1958)

Publisher: Penguin Books

Format: Paperback

Pages: 157

Rating: 5/5
Blurb: In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Truman Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is a part of the literary landscape. Holly Golightly knows that nothing bad can ever happen to you at Tiffany's; her poignancy, wit, and naïveté continue to charm.

This volume also includes three of Capote's best-known stories, “House of Flowers,” “A Diamond Guitar,” and “A Christmas Memory,” which the Saturday Review called “one of the most moving stories in our language.” It is a tale of two innocents—a small boy and the old woman who is his best friend—whose sweetness contains a hard, sharp kernel of truth.

Review: This review is going to be split into two parts, one part for Breakfast at Tiffanys and one part for the three included short stories.

I was about eleven years old when my obsession with all things Audrey Hepburn started, and of course, the film of Breakfast at Tiffany’s was a massive part of that. Since then, I might have watched the film five or so times though not within the last couple of years, so when I found out that Penguin were making hot pink editions of certain books and I learnt that this was one of them, I knew I had to buy the book. Knowing the story beforehand meant that I could visualise everything that was happening, though I found that Capote’s writing was so clear that I would have been able to imagine everything without the film. Holly Golightly will remain to be one of the most amazing, and a little bit odd, characters that I have ever encountered. After reading this book, I’ve been absolutely dying to re-watch the film (though I have yet to find the time) and experience the lovely Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly all over again.

I didn’t originally notice that this version also included three extra short stories, though I’m glad that it does now. Both House of Flowers and A Diamond Guitar were lovely, the writing was so delicate and beautiful, though I’m not usually a fan of short stories, I found myself really enjoying these two. All of this, however, does not even begin to explain A Christmas Memory. Looking back on it now, I don’t quite know what made this particular story more enjoyable for me than the other two, but for some reason I felt like I connected to it better. I also felt that it was incredibly powerful, though it was so short (and sweet!).

UPDATE: Terrible, terrible bloggers

As you possibly may have seen, Chami posted a few days ago about how busy she was/is and how she won't be around for the next two weeks or so. As much as it pains me to say it, I won't be around much for the next couple of weeks either. I've got a lot of assessments to do as well as some school events on the weekends and whatnot, which means I should be returning about the 21st of June (the start of an almost month long holiday period for me!)

However, I did schedule a bunch of posts last night and I will probably be adding more in the few moments I have to spare so the blog won't be completely dead. Some of the posts include:
The Great Gatsby book-to-movie review
Reviews of several other book-to-movie adaptations
A feature on one of my absolute favourite authors ever (for their birthday)
Reviews of about five or so books
Some other non-book (well, kinda) related stuff

Too Late To Apologise?

Yeah, yeah, i know. A lot of apologies need to be said after such a long period of time. Such as Juliette apologising the Warner for being a complete misjudge of character. For me for being so busy and leaving the little blog orphaned with Ely for like a month.

But i came back!
Yup.
Came back to tell you this time that you won't see me for two weeks because of exams coming up next week.  But i will be back!

With all my love
Chami.

May Wrap-Up and June TBR

Last month I set myself 37 books to read, I managed to complete 14 of them which include: Carrier of the Mark, On Chesil Beach, The Emerald Tablet, The Winter Ghosts, They Found Him Dead, Sweet Tooth, Maus I, Champions of Power: Age of Aura, Maus II, The Farm, The Pale Horse, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Heaven and The Carrie Diaries.

As usual, reviews have either been posted for these books or will continue to be posted throughout the month of June. If there is a particular one you would like to see reviewed, then please let me know.

Like most bloggers, I have this insane problem where I buy way more books than I read and so my TBR pile is absolutely through the roof (at this point in time I've marked over 1,300 books as 'to-read' on Goodreads), so in the month of June the goal is to make a slight dent in that massive pile by only reading books that are already included in that list. I'm on holidays from school for half this month so I hope to speed through these books then.

*= currently reading

Physical copies
Library books
Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson
The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak
My Soul to Save my Rachel Vincent
Wentworth Hall by Abby Grahame
Pennies for Hitler by Jackie French
The Poison Throne by Celine Kiernan
Zoe Letting Go by Nora Price *
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
The Collected Short Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald * 
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy *
Owned books
The Elite by Kiera Cass
Pure by Julianna Baggott
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie
Duncton Wood by William Horwood
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Gift by Cecelia Ahern
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
Paper Towns by John Green
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
The Shifting Fog by Kate Morton
Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin *
Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman 
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

E-book copies

Ten by Gretchen McNeil *

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan 
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Chase and the Fallen Angel by R.J. Castro *
OMG by Bob Wernly and Kathy Clark *

So that is 34 books to read this month- if you've seen any of my previous TBR's you'll know that, that is slightly reduced compared to my last couple of TBR's. Hopefully I'll be able to read them all! But all will be well, as we all love Chami! (This is what happens when I schedule posts way ahead of time...Chami edits them!)

In case you were wondering how crazy this pile looks, well: