Tag Archives: reviews

Vampire Academy

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Book: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Pages: 332/Paperback

My Thoughts: It was really lackluster.  I loved the storyline itself, but didn’t like a lot of the characters, especially the 2 main characters, Rose and Lissa.

Lissa is a Morai princess, and is a mortal vampire with a very strong bond to the earth’s magic.  She needs to be protected from the Strigoi, who are your stereotypical vampire.  This is where Rose steps in.  She has both human and vampire blood, which makes her a Dhampir.

The Morai seemed more like glorified witches than actual vampires, because heaven forbid they become like the all-evil Strigoi.  I felt like Mead didn’t think through the Morai/Strigoi/Dhampir very well at all.  For a book set in a vampire school, you forget about the students being vampires (or the Dhampir, who protect the Morai).  I like the idea of different kinds of vampires, and one group being more powerful.  I also like the idea of the Strigoi hunting the Morai.  However, the execution of it fell flat for me- almost like Mead didn’t think it all the way through. 

As for the actual characters, Rose isn’t likeable at all, and seems to be more interested in getting drunk and making out with random guys.  Plus, she has a tendency to get into fights, and seems to be very petty.  I wasn’t impressed with the other characters either.

The writing was horrible!  The transitions were horrible, and Mead kept alluding to some event that led Lissa and Rose leaving school, which we didn’t find out about until the last third of the book.  The book was more telling then showing.  An accurate description would be that it’s like a teen telling you a story, which, in a way, is true. 

Then there’s the fact that it was really boring…there really wasn’t enough action to keep me interested, and sadly, the last 30 to 40 pages were the most interesting of the whole book.  It’s too bad that it took nearly 300 pages to get so interesting…only for it to end.

Rating: 2 out of 5.  It seriously sounds like a teen wrote it, and it definitely could have used a lot of work before being published.

Wildwood Dancing

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Book: Wildwood Dancing by Julliet Marillier

Pages and Format: 403/Hardcover

My Thoughts: Wildwood Dancing is about 5 sisters living in Transylvania, at the castle Piscul Draculi.  We have Jena, who is the second oldest, her oldest sister Tati, and her 3 younger sisters, Paula, Iulia and Stela.  Jena’s best friend is her frog Gogu, who she found in the woods.  Every Full Moon, the sisters go through a portal to the Other Kingdom, where they dance and talk with all of the different creatures of the magical realm. 

However, when their father falls ill, and travels to another town to get better, their cousin Cezar arrives to help oversee the castle.  Things quickly go downhill as Cezar takes over many of the responsibilities that were left to Tati and Jena, and goes on a hunt to get rid of the forest where the Other Kingdom is.

Honestly, I didn’t like Cezar at all, and it turned out, I had good reason not to like him.  His older brother “drowned” when Cezar, Jena, and Costi (Cezar’s brother) and Cezar did nothing to save him.  It turns out the witch of the forest saved Costi, and turned him into a frog…who happened to be named Gogu.

I also found Jena to be somewhat unlikeable too, especially with all her fights with Cezar about how she was in charge of the castle while her father was gone and could manage just fine without Cezar’s help.  She whined and complained about how she was responsible and in charge, and yet she didn’t seem to be very good at running the household in her father’s absence. 

I loved the setting, and the descriptions of the forest and area were amazing!  It started off slow, and then everything picked up. 

I liked Gogu/Costi, as well as Jena’s younger sisters, and I wished that the 3 younger sisters had more of an appearance.  She drew on the mythology and folklore of Transylvania, and she wove in elements of the frog prince as well.  The cover art is really pretty, and it definitely went well with the title of the book, and the whole Other Kingdom element of the book.

Rating: It gets a 3 out of 5, because Cezar and Jena were annoying, and I hated the fact that the family troubles were attributed to a witch, but there were a lot of other things that I really liked.

Pretty Little Liars

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Book: Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

Pages And Format: 286/Paperback

What I Thought: This is the first book in the series.  The series is about 4 girls, Hanna, Spencer, Aria and Emily, who used to be best friends.  After the disappearance of their friend Alison, the group falls apart, and they’re no longer friends.  Three years later, the 4 girls start getting texts and emails from the mysterious A, who knows secrets that only Alison knew.  There are also references to something known as the “Jenna thing,” which is probably revealed in one of the later books. 

Alison, however, is found buried in the backyard of the house she lived in, and the book ends with a text from A, saying that she’s still here, and knows everything.

I first heard about the books when I caught one of the episodes on tv, but didn’t give it another thought until recently, when I saw a commercial for the show.  I’m definitely intrigued with the series, and I really want to know who A is, what really happened to her, and what the Jenna thing is all about.

Rating: I give it a 4 out of 5.  I love the mystery and intrigue set up in the book, plus, it’s a really fast read.

April Shadows

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Book: April Shadows by V.C. Andrews

Pages and Format: 406/Hardcover

My Thoughts: This was a hard book to get into.  Having read The Flowers In The Attic series and My Sweet Audrina, I really wanted to give some of her other books a try. 

We have April, who’s the main character in this series.  The first 2 or 3 chapters were really boring- it was all about April talking about how her dad changed from this really good dad into this awful, horrible person.  Surprise, surprise, he had a brain tumor or something, and died from it.  Then her mom kills herself, so April is left in the care of her older sister Brenda.  April, however, ends up living with her uncle Palaver.  He, very predictably, dies, and we’re left wondering what will happen with April.  Her sister drops out of college to play professional basketball, so April is supposed to go stay with one of her cousins until Brenda gets back from her trip.

It was pretty disappointing, which I think in part is because this is written by a ghost-writer, and didn’t really have the same charm that Flowers In The Attic did.  There was a certain amount of suspense, and I kept waiting for something to evil to happen…and it never did.  It definitely felt like something was lurking in the shadows, and unfortunately, that something didn’t materialize in this book.

My Rating: It gets a 2 out of 5.  It was just okay, and I’m not sure I want to give this particular series anymore of my time.

The Ominous Omnibus

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Book: The Ominous Omnibus (A Series Of Unfortunate Events, Books 1-3) by Lemony Snicket

Pages/Format: 592/Hardcover

What I Thought: I’ve been meaning to read A Series Of Unfortunate Events for ages, so when I was browsing through the children’s section at the library, I had to pick this up!

I didn’t like it as much as I thought, and if I stopped after reading the first book, I would have been fine.  For those not familiar with the series, it’s about the unfortunate lives of the Baudelaire orphans.  In the first book (The Bad Beginning), we learn that their parents died, so the 3 children go to live with Count Olaf.  He’s after their fortune, which they can’t touch until the oldest is an adult.  He tries to marry Violet, but his attempt fails, so they go off to live with a different relative in The Reptile Room.  Once again, Count Olaf tries to get a hold of their fortunate by murdering their Uncle Monty.  And naturally, this attempt fails, so in The Wide Window, they get sent to live with their Aunt Josephine, who dies in the lake. 

I got through the 1st one really fast but somewhere in the second one, it really started to get boring.  I get the whole point of the series is that all of these really bad things happen to the kids, but I started to get really annoyed with it.  The adults in the series with the exception of one or two, were either evil or completely useless.  The whole Sunny said X, which probably means Y bit got really tired, and while the definition of different words in the books are really great for the kids, I found it somewhat distracting. 

There is a certain quirkiness to the adults, though, and there is something sort of steampunk about Violet inventing things, and looking at the different gears and stuff.

I think I would have liked it a lot better if I didn’t read the 3 books back-to-back.  If I do decide to continue on with the series (it’s not going to be anytime soon), then I’ll definitely take some time in between each one. 

Rating: 2 out of 5.  I felt like I got a pretty good handle on the series just from reading the first book, and the following two were just a repetition of The Bad Beginning, with a few character changes, and a different disguise for Count Olaf.

Harry Potter Movie Review!

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First off, this post has lots of spoilers about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so if you haven’t seen it and don’t want it to be ruined, don’t read this post!   But since it’s been a week, you should have seen it by now!  If you haven’t, go see it!

I wanted to do a review on Friday or Saturday, but I figured I’d give people a few days (or a week) before reviewing it since not everyone likes to see it the first day or two. 

Overall, I loved it, and thought it did the book justice.  There were a few things that I wished were in the movie (like Percy making up with his family) but overall, I thought it worked out rather well.  I thought it was not only a great movie, but a really good adaptation as well. 

Here’s a few of my favorite things from the move:

  1. Snape’s memories: I thought it was really well done, and I couldn’t help but start crying.  The scene that did me in was the part where he was holding Lily and crying.  Reading it was completely different than actually seeing it on the screen, and it really made Snape’s feelings for Lily come to life. 
  2. The scene with Harry, his parents, Sirius, and Lupin in the forest: that made me cry as well, especially when Harry asked Lily if she would stay with him, and she said always.  It was also really well-done.
  3. And we have a tie between Neville, McGonagall and the duel between Mrs. Weasley and Bellatrix.  “Not my daughter, you bitch!” is one of the most memorable lines from the entire series.  I always pictured it as being yelled across the great hall, but either way, it was a great line, and I wan’t disappointed.  As for McGonagall, I knew she was a stern, yet caring professor, but I was always sort of indifferent to her.  Until this movie!  Her duel with Snape was amazing, and two of my other favorite lines in the movie came from her.  When she was excited about bringing the statues and suits of armour to life, and told Mrs. Weasley that she always wanted to do that spell was hilarious.  It made her seem like one of the very students she taught.  Overall, I saw her in a completely different way.  My other favorite line was when she told Neville to have Seamus do some pyrotechnics, as he had an aptitude for it.  And of course, Neville!  I can’t review Part 2 and leave Neville out of it!  He was awesome, and the change between the Sorcerer’s Stone and Deathly Hallows was unbelievable.  My favorite Neville moment was when he cut off Nagini’s head, closely by his speech to Voldemort. 

The battle was a lot more disorganized than I expected it to be, but considering it was a battle, and they were fighting for their lives, I would expect it to be chaotic.  I do wish there was a celebration after Voldemort died, but clearly, I can’t change that part of the movie.   

And of course, I need to mention the epilogue!  The audience definitely had this whole “oh, here we go,” vibe when the 19 years later popped up on the screen.  Honestly, I didn’t mind the epilogue, which surprised me, because I wasn’t a fan of the epilogue when I read the book.  They did cut a lot from it, only focusing on Harry talking with Albus about being in Slytherin, and then ends with Harry, Ron and Hermione watching their kids go to Hogwarts.

This review is getting pretty lengthy, so I think I’ll end it here…there are a few other things I wanted to mention about the movie, so I think I’ll do that tomorrow.

Giada’s Family Dinners

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Book: Giada’s Family Dinner’s by Giada De Laurentiis

Pages and Format: 254/Hardcover

What I Thought: This was another cookbook I checked out from the library, and like Everyday Italian, I didn’t get a chance to make everything I wanted to. 

This one was geared more towards family dinners and entertaining, so the servings were slighter bigger than they were in Everyday Italian.  Like Everyday Italian, there were a lot of fresh herbs and veggies, and were pretty simple. 

The only complaint I had was that a couple of the ingredients were what I considered to be expensive.  Example: Fontina Cheese.  I first looked at the cheese section, and found a little block of it for like, $10, but found a different brand of it in the deli section for around half that price.  I like cheese and all but $10 for a little block of cheese…it’s not my thing.  Overall, though, I did like it, and it’s something that I plan to buy at some point. 

It was easy to follow, organized well, and had some good recipes in it.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 because it’s geared towards groups, and I’m cooking for one.

Everyday Italian

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Book: Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentiis

Pages and Format: 255/Hardcover

My Thoughts: Since I checked this out from the library, I only had time to make a few of the recipes, all of which were really good!  Plus, there’s a few more I wanted to try, but I didn’t get the chance.  It’s definitely something I want to buy when I get the chance.  Or maybe I can just check it out from the librayr another time.  The recipes I did make were interesting: lots of fresh herbs and veggies!  I managed to not hurt myself while chopping the vegetables up, which is a miracle.  And washing/rinsing and then chopping them the second I got home from the grocery store is a really good idea!  It made everything go a lot faster knowing that everything was ready to go. 

Plus, I love the simplicity of the recipes: I did have some trouble finding some of the fresh herbs at the grocery store, but thankfully it was really easy to substitute them with the ones I could find. 

Rating: Based on the few things I managed to make, it gets a 4 out of 5.  I love the easy-to-follow recipes, and the layout of the book.

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone

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Book: Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Pages And Format: 309, Paperback

My Thoughts: This was the book that started my obsession love with Harry Potter.  In The Sorcerer’s Stone (aka Philospher’s Stone everywhere else in the world), Harry Potter turns eleven, and learns he’s a wizard.  He goes to Diagon Alley, and travels to Hogwarts on the Hogwarts Express. 

For a debut book, it’s really good!  Plus, we get introduced to a lot of the major characters, life at Hogwarts and Quidditch.  My love of the Weasley twins definitely started when they joked about sending a toilet seat back home, and I love that they’re so funny! 

Every time I read Sorcerer’s Stone, I’m reminded of how magical the books are, and what made me fall in love with them.  At random intervals, I imagine one of the actors saying one of the lines.  And what’s weird is that I don’t really imagine the people and places from the movies when I read the books.  Maybe it’s because I became a fan after the 1st movie came out, and so I had plenty of time to read the first 4 books before the 2nd one came out. 

Rating: 4 out of 5.  Not the best thing ever, but for a debut book, and for the book that changed my life, it’s really good.  Harry Potter will always be a part of my life.

Fruits Basket, Volume 4

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Book: Fruits Basket, Volume 4 by Natsuki Takaya

Pages And Format: 216/Paperback

My Thoughts: This installment of Fruits Basket was another fun read.  We finally get introduced to Akito, the head of the Sohma family.  The rest of the family wonders how it’ll affect Yuki and how he’ll deal with Tohru.  We also meet Ayame, who is the snake in the Zodiac.  Ayame is also Yuki’s older brother.  They don’t get along, and there’s a definite contrast between the two brothers.  Tohru also visits her mother’s grave on the one-year anniversary of her mother’s death, and Kyo and Yuki are surprised when Arisa, Hanajima and Tohru have a graveside picnic.

There’s a page at the end devoted to the year of the dog, and the interview with the author that started in volume 3 continues in this volume.  She mostly talks about her love of video games, which any fan of the manga knows because of the random notes scattered throughout the series.  She also talks about how she came up with the idea for Fruits Basket- Tohru just appeared one day while she was finishing up her last series.

I really do like Fruits Basket, and I think everyone should read it!  The artwork keeps getting better and better.

My Rating: 5 out of 5.  The artwork keeps getting better, and I love the story.