Category: Reviews

Winger by Andrew Smith Book Review – A Male Perspective

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Hi everyone! So I know I’ve already reviewed Winger by Andrew Smith, and that I’ve talked about it a lot in Tuesday Top Tens and it was this last week’s Fandom Friday, but I wanted to share a little more on it. Maybe you think I’m a little crazy, or biased, or I just need to stop pushing this book on everyone, but I don’t really want to stop. And one of the people that I kept pushing to read it was my boyfriend, and yes, I felt a sort of gratification when he enjoyed it as much as he did. I mean, I had to be like “I told you so!”. You would too. Now to pass along my genius and wonderful taste in books (haha!), I asked him to do his own review of Winger, so not only would you get another opinion on the novel, but it would be a guy’s perspective as well.

So without further ado, enjoy this review!

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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Spoiler Free Movie Review!

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I am so incredibly lucky that I was able to attend the Catching Fire fan camp and red carpet premiere in Los Angeles. You can read my recaps of Day One, Day Two and Day Three. I met so many awesome cast members, and fans, laughed my butt off, got NO sleep whatsoever, and made a ton of memories. But the best part of the whole experience was being able to see the movie early.

And now that the movie is out in TWO days (or tomorrow, if you’re seeing it at the night showings like me!), I want to share my review. As always, its completely spoiler free!

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Book of the Week – Champion by Marie Lu

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It’s here, its here, its finally here!

And okay, Prodigy totally released back in January and I haven’t even had to wait a year, like you do for most books, but I was just so excited that Champion had finally released. I downloaded it to my Kindle as soon as I was able to, and spent the next three hours, devouring the novel.

This was a finale worth waiting for, and I can’t wait to dive into it, so let’s do it!

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Ten by Gretchen McNeil Book Review

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Ten by Gretchen McNeil

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You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., site the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

My Review:

I have to make one thing very, very clear: I don’t like horror or scary or thriller type of stories, for the most part. Its just not my cup of tea. I can’t even begin to count the amount of times I went to go see a scary movie with friends in high school, and being asked to leave because another moviegoer complained about me laughing so hard during the movie. I find scary movies/novels hilarious. My boyfriend and I watched the old school Evil Dead the other day, and I just couldn’t stop laughing.

So its not easy for me to jump into a horror novel. BUT I absolutely LOVE Gretchen McNeil; she is a fabulous person, and a seriously inspiring author and I loved her novel, 3:59. I bought Ten when I met her at 3:59 release in Redondo Beach, so I knew I had to dive into it.

And I was pleasantly surprised at how much I LOVED this novel. Maybe these kind of stories are meant to be told in written form, and not in a visual format, because not once did I laugh…at the story. I laughed at the intentional humor, but I was generally addicted to the story, scared of what was going to happen next or who was going to die next, and I know there is NO way I could have read this in the dark.

Gretchen made this book feel so REAL. It felt so much like a movie plot line BUT just so much more real. She had the story thought out so much that each and every step, every small detail added up to an incredibly story and an incredible reveal that I did NOT see coming in the slightest. I kind of pride myself in knowing the “whodunnit” before they reveal it but I didn’t see this at all. When it was revealed, I literally gasped out loud. I couldn’t believe it! A really good scary story will surprise you like that, and this is one of the first to do that!

I was also genuinely scared. The murders that happened in this book were all vicious and scary, and gruesome. I was shocked at all. I think because I don’t really read horror and there isn’t a lot of YA horror, I just wasn’t prepared for it. Every time a person died, I was gasping. I couldn’t believe it, and I was usually fairly grossed out too. Like, really, Gretchen, you killed him/her THAT way? Way to be as gruesome as possible. But it was perfect. Everything about it felt real and disgusting and scary. She had the right amount of thrill and anticipation throughout the entire novel that made it so hard not be scared.

It was also the perfect choice for Halloween week as well. It really put me in a creepy mood and it also made me more likely to dive into scary novels again. I think being able to experience the tension through words instead of visuals worked a lot better for me. I think, since I’m such a visual person, I can see those foreshadowed moments and the hidden clues better in a movie than in a book and so I was completely captivated by this book, from beginning to end.

I can’t wait to read more from Gretchen. Her books have completely impressed me thus far, and she truly is an amazing person. I will add also that I love that she includes diversity like its the easiest thing in the world, because it SHOULD be. Beautiful. Definitely pick up this book.

Rating:

4 out of 5 stars

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Fandom Friday – Legend Trilogy by Marie Lu

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Its been awhile since there’s been a Fandom Friday up on this blog. Mostly because I’ve just been so busy. Its about mid way through the semester, and I’m trying to work on my novel, and I’m reading a TON so keeping up with those reviews is difficult but I want to keep doing this, and now that I have my three LOVELY contributors (Kat, Clarissa and Christina Marie), I’m feeling good.

For those of you who are new, or may not be familiar with the Fandom Friday, its basically this: every Friday (I try, I do), myself or a guest blogger will feature a fandom. See, I remember I was teasing someone about a book series they liked because I thought it was just downright awful. Then I remember someone doing the exact same thing to me about a book series that means a lot to me.

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