Book Reviews Archives - Page 97 of 115

Book Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Jul 27, 2014

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Pages: 225
Publish date: August 1st 2014 (Australia), May 13th 2014 (US)
Publisher: Allen and Unwin (Aus), Delacorte Press (US)
ISBN: 1760111066
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends – the Liars – whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars:

First line: WELCOME TO THE beautiful Sinclair family.

I received We Were Liars from Allen and Unwin in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influenced my thoughts on the book.

This book. Wow. I have a lot to say about this book and you have probably heard this from review after review, but it really was an amazing read.

Firstly, E. Lockhart’s writing is beautiful, the metaphors, the stories in the book. I cannot get enough of her writing. I haven’t read any other of E. Lockhart’s books, but her writing in We Were Liars is hauntingly beautiful.

“The universe is seeming really huge right now. I need something to hold on to.”

I think my favourite part about this book is the writing. It just adds so much depth and beauty and sophistication.

Another pretty awesome thing that this book has is at the start. A Map. What contemporary book has a map? We Were Liars also has a family tree, which I find totally awesome. I love how the whole book is set up It’s hard to explain, but when you pick it up you will know. The setup is so different to any other book that I have ever seen. It’s refreshing, just like the book.

Cadence is the main protagonist of We Were Liars. As it’s from her perceptive you really are captured by the emotions, her thoughts, everything that she thinks and feels. It’s beautiful at the start, but as the story goes on it gets harder and harder for her and it’s just so tragic but beautiful at the same time.

I really liked the ‘Liars’ as their parents’ call them, but I think that just doesn’t seem right. Throughout the book they are lying to their parents about how they feel. Their parents don’t know they lie. I think that if it was just changed to ‘we call ourselves the liars.’ It would have made the story flow better. But maybe Lockhart wanted it that way.

The liars are Johnny, Mirren, Gat and Cadence and I really did enjoy all of them. But I wish we got to see more of Johnny and Mirren. I felt that they lacked characterisation and I just could not connect with them. In saying that, I felt that all the characters lacked characterisation and I just could not connect with them the way that I would have liked to.

I think that Gat was my favourite character because he brought a light to the Sinclairs family. Well the ‘liars’ at least. He isn’t part of the family, but I felt that at least to the kids he was. The Sinclairs in my eyes are a very old fashion type of family. They are not good with change and Gat brought that in We Were Liars.

What if we could stop being different colors, different backgrounds, and just be in love?

I really didn’t like the adults of the Sinclair family. They just didn’t care about anyone else. They didn’t work for money and they brought that ideal onto their kids. The mum’s of the family just made me so angry and frustrated. They expect everything to be on a silver platter for them. The grandfather, man, he is a piece of work. I have nothing much to say about him than that I did very much dislike him.

The ending…you all knew that this was coming. I think that this ending surprised a lot of people and even though it was devastating I thought it was so good in an ending sense. You are not really sure as to what really happened but throughout the whole book you are left with clues here and there. I think that if you go and re-read it after you know the ending it will all make sense. I don’t want to go too much into this as I don’t want to spoil those who haven’t read it. All I have to say is what they did was stupid. I know that they were trying to prove something, but it was stupid.

Another thing that I really liked about We Were Liars is the little stories about the King, his daughters, and the mouse. It was different and really intriguing. It really added depth to the whole book and after the ending you really understand it a lot more.

Overall, I really enjoyed We Were Liars. It was a hauntingly beautiful, breathtakingly tragic read that you will not want to put down. The gorgeous writing from E. Lockhart and structure of the novel adds for much more to the novel. We Were Liars is thrilling, smart and completely unforgettable.

For those who have read We Were Liars without spoiling what did you think it? For the people that haven’t read it do you want to?

Book Review: Ready to Wed by Cindi Madsen

Jul 22, 2014

Ready to Wed by Cindi Madsen

Pages:350 (paperback)
Publish date:July 22nd 2014
Publisher: Entangled:Select
ISBN: 162266258X
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Dakota Halifax loves to be in love. In fact, as one of Las Vegas’s premier wedding planners, she’s built a whole career around romance. Which is why her own wedding has to be nothing short of perfect. And then her fiancé jilts her. While she’s waiting in her wedding dress. On a cruise ship already out at sea.Once back on dry land, Dakota tries to pour her heart into her business and weekly wedding advice column, Get Ready to Wed. But how can the heartbroken celebrate others’ true love? When she reconnects with her childhood best friend, surprisingly sexy and all-grown-up casino bouncer Brendan West, Dakota wonders if maybe she can fall back in love with being in love.

But then her ex reappears, begging for another chance, and suddenly Dakota questions if she’ll ever understand love. Can someone once-burned and twice-shy ever find her way down the aisle again?

Ready to Wed:

I received an e- arc of Ready to Wed in exchange for an honest review. This in no way has influenced my review.

I always like reading an adult book every once in a while. It’s a nice change from the YA world.

This is the second Cindi Madsen book I have read and I think I enjoyed this one more and that is saying something because I really did enjoy her other book.

Madsen’s writing is really bringing. It takes you in from the first moment and, let me tell you, Ready to Wed starts off with a bang.

At the start of the book (and this won’t be a spoiler because it does mention it in the blurb) Dakota is left at the ‘altar.’ She is left on her wedding day on the cruise ship that she was going to be having her honeymoon/wedding on. To make things a little bit worse, she is also a wedding planner.

Throughout the book Madsen is really able to capture Dakota’s emotions and it’s heartbreaking. She tries to conceal her emotions from everyone around her but we can see how she is really feeling. I wanted to slap her across the head and give her a big hug.

Ready to Wed is set in Las Vegas and I love how Madsen really captures the world of Vegas without overpowering the story. It was just that little hint that it was there.

After all the heartbreak, Dakota’s childhood friend Brendan comes into the picture and he is just amazing. He comes at just the right time and he is what Dakota needs…a friend. Someone who understands her in a way no one else can, he understands why she is the way she is.

Grant is the guy that left her at the altar. He just made me so mad! I understand as to why he didn’t turn up, but he didn’t have the courage to tell her then and there why. Then he tries and gets back with her. Please no, just go away.

Brendan is just so damn cute. He was such a good character. Everyone is going to love him. He is there for Dakota when she needs someone and even though he sometimes doesn’t know what he is doing he helps.

Dakota’s mum. Another mum that I just don’t seem to like. She just got on my nerves. Maybe it’s because of the way that Dakota thought of her mum. Maybe it’s the way that Madsen wanted the reader to feel. Her mum just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Her dad, on the other hand, I quite liked. Yes, he may a little overprotective, but aren’t most dads? He was quite an enjoyable character to read about.

I loved hearing about all the weddings being planned. It was different from what I am used to. Obviously, because I read mostly young adult I don’t get weddings planners as the main protagonist, it was really fresh and interesting to hear about it.

All the time and work that it takes to plan a weddings and all the little details. It was awesome. There were also those dreaded little disasters that happen on the wedding day that nobody wants.

I really enjoyed Ready to Wed. It was cute, heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. I know that I will be reading more Cindi Madsen in the future because so far I haven’t been disappointed.

Have you read Ready to Wed yet, what did you think of it? Will you read Ready to Wed?

Book Review: Rev Girl by Leigh Hutton

Jul 16, 2014

Rev Girl by Leigh Hutton

Pages: 288 (paperback)
Publish date: May 24th 2014
Publisher: Leigh Hutton Books, distributed by Dennis Jones & Associates
ISBN: 0992495601
Purchase: Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Inspired by a true story

It’s hard to be the new girl, but it’s even harder being the new girl who races dirt bikes . . .

Ever since her parents forced her to move from Canada to Silvertown, Colorado, Clover Kassedy hasn’t fit in. So how do you deal when everyone hates you?

Focusing all her energy on racing her motorcycle did it for a while, but now that Clover’s managed to find a bestie and a boyfriend, the pressure on the sixteen-year-old is worse than ever.

She’s determined to get to the World Championships, where she could finally meet her idol – an Australian, the World Champion – and have a shot at becoming a professional dirt bike racer. But with her super- competitive dad, workaholic mother and relentless bullies at races and at high school, Clover is struggling to make her dreams a reality.

Will it be her scheming ex-best-friend who shatters her world? Or will she let her ‘perfect’ boyfriend – the guy who has finally made her feel like she belongs in their school and their town – stop her from becoming an international racing star?

Rev Girl:

I received a review copy of Rev Girl from Leigh Hutton. This in no way influenced in my review.

I have very mixed feelings about Rev Girl. I enjoyed it, but a lot of things really did get on my nerves.

I liked the story line and the premise. It was interesting and took me by surprise. I didn’t know too much about dirt bike racing, but I do enjoying ‘watching’ it and all so it was different and really enjoyable.

It was interesting hearing about the world of motorbike racing from a racer’s point of view, especially as it was a girl. I loved it.

Clover Kassedy is a fascinating protagonist. Like the novel itself, I have mixed feelings about her. She was enjoyable to read about and the way she spoke of racing was interesting. It really brought me into the novel, but I felt that her feelings took Rev Girl to a new levelbut not in a good way. I think it really overpowered the story.

I felt the romance was so rushed. It felt like insta-love to me and, if you know me, well, you know how much I dislike it with a passion. The romance between Clover and Dallas it made me feel so frustrated. It felt so forced and so rushed. I understand that the book did take place over a time period, but I felt there was no sense of a relationship between Clover and Dallas. It just moved from them getting together to so much more.

I also thought that the characters ‘felt’ too young to be doing what they were doing. They might have been older, but the way that Clover talked and thought, as well as the other characters, they just felt so young.

The family situation: Good family relationships and I never seem to be together and_Rev Girl was no different. Clovers father was a so-so father. Yes, he was really supportive of her. It was really nice reading about it, but then he could get very overprotective at times and overprotective parents and I don’t mix. It was really annoying at times and did really hit my nerves.

Clover’s mother, wow, okay, I didn’t like her one bit. She was annoying and unsupportive. She didn’t care one bit for Clover’s career. Maybe deep down she cared about her safety, but I think for the most point she just didn’t care. Clover’s sister, hmm, I don’t have that much to say about her as she wasn’t really that much present in the book but from when she was present I don’t think she like her mother, cared much for Clover in some way.

I adored all the racing scenes and the places she went to race and all. It was exciting and interesting reading all about it. Experiencing in some way how these events work. It was really nice seeing people from all the around the world coming together for these comps and it was great of Leigh Hutton to incorporate all types of nationalities into Rev Girl.

Leigh has a talent for making the reader be captured in their imagination. I was able to imagine scenes, accents, and how people looked. It was different and refreshing.

Another thing that I liked about Rev Girl was that we got to experience Clover grow from someone that was dependent on her friends, boyfriend, and everyone around her to an independent girl, really starting to become a women. It was insightful and really lifted the ending.

Overall the book was okay. It wasn’t the best and it wasn’t the worse, just somewhere in between. I am not too sure if I will read the rest of the series, but maybe when they come out I will give them a try.