Books: A true story

I like to read young adult and classic literature and think about them too much and look up random tidbits on google.

A Breath of Eyre

A Breath of Eyre - Eve Marie Mont A Breath of Eyre was a lovely debut novel about Emma Townsend who gets to live her own life as well as Jane Eyre’s in a fascinating re-telling that I loved. My favorite thing about modern retellings is looking for little references and clues to the original story. I had a lot of fun in A Breath of Eyre noticing the big and small references to Jane Eyre like similar plot points and even the similar school name.The first thing that struck me as charming was Emma’s connection to the world of Jane Eyre. It reminded me of The Wizard of Oz because she starts to recognize characters from her real life which makes it hard to tell if she’s really living Jane Eyre’s life or if it’s all a dream. That sort of ambiguity is something I love to devour in stories. And since the author had done such a good job at creating strong, unique, and interesting characters, it was easy to recognize them in Jane Eyre’s life.As I was getting about a third of the way through the book, I started to feel like it was all very predictable. It wasn’t veering much from the Jane Eyre story at all. There were a lot of lines that came directly from Jane Eyre. Just as I was about to give up, the author threw a twist in there that I did not see coming. It was the kind of twist in a story that changes everything and gives you chills. I was glued to the book after that. And the story grew into so much more than a retelling.Overall, it was a great new take on the world of Jane Eyre that didn’t turn out to be as predictable as I feared it would. It’s an imaginative, tension-filled romance that I loved.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

Everbound: An Everneath Novel

Everbound: An Everneath Novel - The tone that I adored from the first book is back. The opening line, which I loved, just sets the tone so well.“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” – Joseph CampbellNikki is going on an adventure to get something back that she lost in the underworld called the Everneath. It took me a minute to get reoriented in the world again, but I slipped back in easily after a few pages even without rereading the first book. I positively flew through this book in one sitting. The journey through the underworld and the task she wanted to complete felt impossible the whole time and kept me just glued to the pages. The layers of the underworld that she travels through were different in a chilling and alien way. This is one of those books where the foreshadowing was spot on. I thought I was all smart and I knew everything that was going to happen. Then the bombshell of an ending hits and I’m still in awe. Brodi even put the clues in there of what was going to happen at the end and I missed them all. It gives me chills just thinking about it. I feel like she deserves a round of applause for that ending.Cole is a sexy, modern, teen version of Hades. He’s likeable yet sneaky and dark and I can’t ever totally trust him. My only complaint about the whole book was a few things that were taken too literally. The “kicking” element of the story was just a little to literal and weird for me.Overall, don’t miss this stunning retelling of Persephone and Hades.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

The Warlock's Curse

The Warlock's Curse - M.K. Hobson The first half was a charming steam-punk novel with characters that I cared a lot about. The idea of an allergy to magic was very creative. The second half of the novel took a turn and became very dark and sometimes disturbing - more so than I usually enjoy reading about. She's a great writer, and me not liking this books was just a matter of personal taste.

Slippers of Pearl: The Cobbler Tales: 1

Slippers of Pearl - Danyelle Leafty Slippers of Pearl is an interesting twist and original take on the fairy-tale The Princess Who Couldn’t Laugh. I thought the story was very imaginative and the writing was cute and witty (though there were more comparisons in this book than I think it really needed). I liked that the house the main character, Faryn, lived in was alive in a adorable and charming way. The story felt kind of like The Hobbit because Faryn goes on different adventures involving magic shoes, runaway pigs, and trying getting a girl to laugh to lift a curse. My only complaint about this book was that unlike Bilob who is on all these adventures to get somewhere, there was no overall story line connecting all the side quests in Slippers of Pearl. Still, the author put a lot of detail in the story that made it very rich and entertaining to me.Overall, it’s a good coming of age story with a lot of funny moments and a good message. It was pretty entertaining for me as an adult, but I think kids would really dig this story.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

Cate of the Lost Colony

Cate of the Lost Colony - Lisa M. Klein Cate of the Lost Colony is about a girl who is banished to the new world by a jealous queen. This is the kind of entertaining historical fiction that also happens teaches you a little something about history. There is a huge cast of characters in this book, most of whom existed in real life. The main characters really shined even though the minor characters often got mixed up in my mind (thank goodness for the awesome character list at the beginning). The main characters Cate, Manteo, and Sir Walter Ralegh all narrate this story. I found the voices of each of the narrators so distinct and beautiful that I could tell within a paragraph or two who was talking even though it wasn’t labeled. Through each of the narrators we get to see the new world from different perspectives. Cate shows us life as a colonist. Manteo shows us the major changes that the Native Amercians went through. Sir Walter Ralegh, who is an historical figure, shows us the glory and wealth people dreamed of finding in America.I loved the summary at the end of the book that explained what was fiction and what wasn’t. It was surprising how much of the story was actually not that far from reality. I read this at the perfect time of year. Who knew that a novel about pilgrims would be such a page-turner? The writing was authentic and wonderful. The romance was amazing. No instant love or cliches to be found.Overall, it was a great historical romance that had me hooked until the last page.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

Timeless

Timeless - Michelle Madow Timeless is the last book in the Transcend Time series. This finale is about reincarnated lovers, Drew and Lizzie, who now have to get rid of a curse before they can be together forever. I thought Timeless was a cute, fun and fast romantic read. The beginning had some ominous moments that gave me a few chills. The middle gets to be kind of repetitive. Lizzie mentions that she is under a curse and is going to die a lot. The plot dragged a little talking about things that weren’t interesting or really needed in the story like how Lizzie convinces her mom to travel somewhere. It felt like a lot of the stuff in the middle could have been left out so we could get to the meat of the story which was at the end. I really loved the setting at the end and wish we could have spent more time there. I felt like there wasn’t a lot of conflict throughout the story. Everything seemed to work out a little too easily. But overall, it did keep my interest. I thought it was an entertaining read, but the first book, Remembrance, is still my favorite and I think the best book in this series. If you loved the first book and want to know what happens to Drew and Lizzie then you should pick this one up.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

The World of Downton Abbey

The World of Downton Abbey - To watch Downton Abbey is to watch a way of life slowly die with an epic story and it kind of reminds me of Gone with the Wind. The best part of the TV show is the personal look into the servants’ and nobilities’ lives from the early 1900s and how they interacted with each other. You really feel transported to the time period and all the characters are interesting and likable yet flawed. Like any loyal fan would, I bought this book because it had the words “Downton Abbey” on it. I figured I would love it. I did and I got more than I expected.This was more than a behind-the-scenes look at the actors and the locations. Jessica Fellowes takes history and facts from a time period that is kind of overlooked and just makes that time period come alive. You get to go on a journey to see how essentially Jane Austen’s time became the world we live in now. She made me care about where the term “weekend” came from and why the Dowager Countess was so baffled by it.Here are a few of the fascinating morsels that I learned:*The whole family will come down for breakfast except the lady because married women get breakfast in bed daily. (Breakfast in bed for Mother’s Day anyone?! Now I feel ripped off because it was just something they got EVERY DAY. I’m seriously doubting that our modern world is “better.”)*You get to see the beginning of things that have survived to modern times like cornflakes from America.Country Houses were being torn down left and right after WWI until The Victoria and Albert Museum had an exhibition called “The Destruction of the English Country House” that saved them. (That sounds like the most boring exhibit ever but now I’m depressed that I missed it.)*Cora’s back story is from a trend during that time of American women coming to England and marrying English lords. Cora was based on woman in real life named Lady Curzon from the book “To Marry and English Lord.” (Okay, I have to admit that I did not notice Cora was American until I read this book.)I adored reading all the history and the real life inspriations for the show. The pictures are beautiful. The actors give insight into their characters. You get to read about everything from clothing, family, and society to war and change. It’s a look into an era that is really the beginning of our modern world and the death of a way of life that had been around for a very long time. This book was the perfect companion to my favorite show.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

The Forsaken (Forsaken - Trilogy)

The Forsaken - Lisa M. Stasse The Forsaken is about an orphan girl who has to pass a test like everyone at her age that determines if she is prone to crime. If she fails, she will be shipped off to a prison island. One thing I noticed about this book was the little things that made me think of me of other science fiction novels (in an interesting and not copy-cat way). The start of the book really reminded of the movie Minority Report with Tom Cruise. There are machines that remind me a little of War of The Worlds. And there was just a little dash of Divergent and The Maze Runner.This is one of those books that takes a while to get into. It felt oddly slow at first even though lots of things are happening. I didn’t like the main character, Alenna, at first, but she gets more personality as the story goes on. There were a few plot elements that didn’t get explained all the way. One example is that two opposing gangs from the island decided to work together for reasons that made no sense to me. I noticed that a lot of the time there are questions kind of presented to you like it was trying to make me wonder about certain things. I really like to come to those kinds of questions on my own. The ending really picked up and caught my interest. The story closes in a satisfying way with no big cliff hanger, but there are missions left to be accomplished.Overall, it was a good dystopian that had me entertained, especially towards the end, but I found too many things spelled out for me and some plot points not explained all the way.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

The Gleaning, Spellspinners Series #2 (The Spellspinners of Melas County)

The Gleaning - - Heidi R. Kling The Gleaning is about a witch and warlock who are supposed to be enemies instead of lovers. Lily and Logan have been raised to fight each other to keep a balance between their light and dark magic. I loved how this was action-packed right from the start. It picks up right where the last one left off. We get to know the characters a lot more in this book which is something I felt like was missing from the first book. I loved Logan’s back story and I felt it added a lot to his character. The romance in this book was just plain adorable.I liked the long flashback scene that goes back to the 1800s. Even though it distracted me a little from the plot since I couldn’t see at first how the two were related, I thought it was very entertaining to read. The flashback reminded me a lot of Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare because of the dashing, romantic characters and the setting from the past.I loved the choices in this book. As you are reading along, you get to make choices as to where you think the plot should go. Both choices had a lot of scenes that were similar even though the plot moves in two directions. I loved them both, but I have a personal favorite (choice 1 if you are wondering!). It was an addicting read with some delightful Alice and Wonderland references. I thought this was a great addition to witch mythology.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

Budgie Smugglers (Urban Hunters)

Budgie Smugglers (Urban Hunters) - Gary Taaffe I loved the glossary in this book. I know that sounds weird, but let me explain. The author, Gary, talks about how there’s a “rule” in writing that you shouldn’t use colloquialisms and you should change the spelling to suit whatever country you’re selling it in. Gary says the heck with that because he thinks readers are smart – give them a glossary so they can learn and be entertained. I agree 100% (why didn’t Harry Potter do this!). The Australian flavor of this book is immensely entertaining. As a non-Australian, it’s pretty easy to follow the slang throughout the story after briefly reading through the glossary. (And even if you don’t read the glossary, the important words are explained in the story so you won’t be lost.)We get to see more of Billy and Amber’s adventures in Budgie Smugglers. Billy is a boy from the Australian bush and Amber is a city girl that Billy meets. This book was just as laugh out loud funny as the first three books in this series. It was charming yet brutally honest and raw at the same time. The contrast between the two is so interesting. Like Billy talking about eating kangaroo pups and Amber being horrified by it. Then Billy explained it was to keep his grandfather fat so he can stay warm in the extreme conditions of living in the bush. See! They ate baby kangaroos and it’s disturbing and cute at the same time. And there were just enough gross-out scenes to make you squeal. Billy roasting a cat in a straight-forward way made me squirm. It was awesome. No way would I ever want to see Billy cook something, but I love reading about it in all it’s gory detailed glory. Billy slowly learning about girls and falling in love for the first time in his innocent way was just plain adorable. I can’t get enough of these characters and their adventures.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

Gathering Blue

Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry Gathering Blue is about an orphan girl, Kira, with a gift of dyeing and weaving threads. The community and the characters are completely different from The Giver. The story feels nothing like The Giver until you get to the end, where Lois Lowry ties the two books together in a beautiful way. And yes, you get to find out at the end what happens to Jonas. I liked contrasting this society with that of Jonas’s from The Giver. In some ways this community is worse off because there is poverty, hunger and no education. But in some ways this community is better than Jonas’s because there is color, personality, deep family love, and some freedom. Not a lot of freedom, but some.I loved the naming system in this world. I found it very creative. How many syllables your name has is a status of how old they are. I loved how beautiful the writing was. Lois Lowry is a master and making you turn the pages. With every page you get a sense of something else being not quite right (as she said at her signing) and that’s what kept me glued to the story. She goes into a lot of depth of what the main character is thinking and feeling which I loved. The story sucked me in all the way until the ambiguous ending. I have a feeling she likes those… She said at her signing that she likes leaving things up to the imagination. If the ending is done right, I say that I have to agree. And Lois knows how to end it just right. I found this book to be another powerful story from her about family and love.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

A Mutiny in Time (Infinity Ring Series #1)

A Mutiny in Time - James Dashner A Mutiny in Time is a story about 3 kids who travel back in time to fix history before the world ends. I liked the twist in this story that unlike traditional time-travel stories, they are supposed to change things. The historic details that aren’t accurate amused me. I think a lot of kids would be clever enough to know whose faces should really be on Mount Rushmore. It would have been fun to see and learn more history (I mean besides the random facts that came out of Dak). The characters and their quirks made me chuckle. One thing I didn’t get was why the villain wanted to destroy the world?? Her motivations weren’t really clear to me, but I’m hoping that we’ll find out more about the bad guys (aka the SQ) and their motivations later on in the series. Wanting power for power’s sake does not make interesting villains. Other than that, the author did a good job with playing with your expectations a little with a nice action-filled plot. The story was a lot of fun, adventurous, and didn’t feel predictable.Game ReviewOne of the really fun things about this book is the online game component. The book comes with a map that has clues to help with the game. It also had a lot of cool facts from history presented in a nice way. The game was simple, fun, and full of puzzles and mini-missions. I did find the wagon mini-mission to be very finnicky and a little tedious, but I enjoyed the game overall and played it over a few days. Just FYI – the game is an app as well as on the Internet, but they don’t sync up. Meaning however far you get on one doesn’t transfer over to the other. But otherwise the game is exactly the same whether you play it on your phone or the internet.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

Urban Hunters Collection Books 1 to 3

Urban Hunters Collection Books 1 to 3 - Gary Taaffe The Urban Hunters is like The Jungle Book set in Aboriginal Australia. When I saw the subtitle, “Billy’s Gotta Find Some Girls,” I knew I had to read it. I was pulled in from the first page by how vivid and visual the writing was. I was immersed in an entirely new and fascinating culture that was shocking, sad, beautiful and amazing. He dedicates this book to his nieces and nephews who “stared wide-eyed as I told them about Billy and Amber’s adventures” and I felt exactly the same way. I’ve never read anything like it. I was grossed out one minute, laughing out loud the next, and completely shocked by the sad and heart-breaking things that can happen to the Aboriginal people. I was a little stunned by how graphic some of it was (think rotting, maggott filled kangaroo type stuff), but I loved this book. Gary Taaffe did an excellent job of entertaining me and at the same time educating me on a different people and their way of life.In Book 2, Tribal Scarring, it gets a little more serious than Book 1, Four Small Stones. I missed the light-hearted humor of the Book 1. Still, it was a nice contrast to see the dangers of living in the bush in Australia. I definitely felt some culture shock as I was reading about Billy and the rituals he goes through to become a man. The writing was intense and so well done. The author doesn’t spell everything out for you. He lets you discover this new culture on your own which I liked.In Book 3, Walkabout, Billy goes into the “whitefella” culture for the first time and his culture shock is charming, honest and amusing. I loved the Australian lingo throughout the book. Some of the words I’d never heard before, but it wasn’t too difficult to figure out, like when he slides his “sunnies” (I’d call them sunglasses) to the top of his head. It helped me really get a feel for the culture. The story starts off a bit slow, but picks up with some more great gross-out hunting scenes that I loved from Book 1, but this time there are cute puppies. The humor had me laughing out loud in places, but mostly I felt myself smiling a lot at how innocent Billy is despite being able to hunt and live off of the land on his own at such a young age. Billy is a juxtaposition of seasoned warrior and innocent child that makes him incredibly easy to like. Overall, it was such a fun and entertaining adventure story.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

Witch's Brew, Spellspinners Series #1 (The Spellspinners of Melas County)

Witch's Brew  - Heidi R. Kling This book felt like Harry Potter goes YA. I found some similarities to Harry Potter like the term "You Know Who," and a a restricted library. I liked the magic. Women, or witch's, magic involves beauty, flowers, healing and nature. The men, or warlocks, are their enemies and have "opposite" powers though it doesn't go into a lot of detail what those powers are. It mentions mind reading powers and potions. The kind of stuff Snape would like. The conflict of having men and women being enemies from a curse was pretty cool. This isn't an average ebook - it has choices in it. It's not quite like choose your own adventure because the story line will end up in the same place. There are two choices in the story and when I went back and read the other choice, they eventually meet up at the same place in the story but it flesh's out the characters and their relationships a little more. If I were reading this again, I would probably read both choices and then move on. The characters were okay. They didn't seem very fleshed out, but they didn't bother me either. My favorite part of this book was the really cool conflict and the background behind it. Can't wait to read the next one. Or you could call it Romeo + Juliet meets witches and magic.

For Darkness Shows the Stars

For Darkness Shows the Stars - Diana Peterfreund First of all, I loved finding all the similarities between For Darkness Shows the Stars and Persuasion. The book stands really well on it’s own if you don’t want to read Persuasion, but I had a lot of fun recognizing the familiar characters. For Darkness Shows the Stars is set in a post-apocalyptic world, but when the world eventually recovers and we finally come full circle, it is eerily similar to Jane Austen’s time. For Darkness Shows the Stars was a more faithful re-telling than I thought it would be which I loved. I was a little confused with some of the terms at first (like the term “Post” for a class of people) but it gets explained later on. The history of how the world was destroyed is also revealed, but it takes a few chapters. I found the moral dilemma in the book of whether technology is good or bad completely fascinating. I would never have thought that a Jane Austen sci-fi re-telling would work, but it totally does. I loved this unique story and it is one that will definitely stick with me.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

Persuasion

Persuasion - Jane Austen, Gillian Beer My first impression of Persuasion was that Jane Austen writes some interesting and detailed characters. Right from page one, Sir Walter was my favorite character. He’s a jerk, yeah, but he’s hilarious. I don’t know that the characters in this book are as modern as they are in say Pride and Prejudice, but the author’s brutal honesty, especially about the less appealing characters, is always entertaining. The whole story made me really think about how much other people influence our lives and whether or not that is always a good thing.And can Jane Austen write a romance. The flirting, the dashing hero that you want but can’t have, and that beautiful love letter! I do have to say that there was one major climactic scene that just felt cheesy to me. Oh the horror! Other than that, it was refreshing and fun to read a Jane Austen novel that I didn’t even know existed until a few years ago.This book is also reviewed on my blog Books: A true story

Currently reading

The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales
Wilhelm Grimm, Jacob Grimm, Brothers Grimm, Joseph Campbell, Josef Scharl, Margaret Raine Hunt, Padraic Colum, James Stern
Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Spousonomics: Using Economics to Master Love, Marriage, and Dirty Dishes
Paula Szuchman;Jenny Anderson