Stardust

Stardust By: Neil Gaiman

                          In a quaint small town in England is where this story starts. The town is called Wall it is so named because of a giant stone wall that is built along one of its meadows. The book starts with a single adventure of a young man named Dunston Thorne. On the other side of the wall is a magical land called Faerie and every few years the fair folk of Faerie and the normal folk of wall have a market. It is the only time the citizens of wall are allowed to cross said wall. It was then the Dunston met and fell in love with a beautiful slave girl. Which brought about Tristan Thorne, who at 18 was in love with the town beauty. Whilst walking her home one night they witnessed a falling star, he vowed to cross the wall to go and find the star and bring it back to her.
                         It's a book filled with princes, witches, adventures, unicorns and more. I saw the movie before I found out it was a book, and sought it out to read. I will admit it wasn't quite like the movie, but then again no book is. I find them very similar but different enough that you could see them as two different stories. I rather enjoyed both. There is a scene in the beginning that did make me blush a little, and would advise this to be a story for an older audience.

Happy Reading!

Allegiant

A personal note before I start my review I just want to say that I realize that my reviews are short and vague. I thought that by giving bits of information like how you would read the back of a book that it may leave out most of the spoilers and coax people to read. However I have come to realize that it just made for a bad review. So I will try and do better in the future. :)

Allegiant By: Veronica Roth

The adventures for Tris and Tobias and their friends continue in the last book of the divergent series. Allegiant. With Jeannie Mathews dead and the swarms of factionless rallying behind Evelyn a shocking video come to light about what lies outside of the city and the large fences. With the help of a group of rebels who want the factions back; calling themselves the Allegiant; Tris, Tobias and others sneak out of the city and its fences to see just what is outside. What they find is an even larger war and immediately get caught up in the need to figure out what really is right or wrong.

I enjoyed this book, however I didn't (at first) see the point in killing off certain characters that Veronica Roth did. But after thinking about the book and the characteristics of those characters I realized that  it was the only way and that it was set in those characters all along. I guess kind of like their destiny. I did enjoy this series and there is a chance that I will read it again in the future.

Insurgent

Insurgent By: Veronica Roth

Like a lot of middle books, this one wasn't quite as good as the first, but informative and set up the scene (at least I think) for the last book. I am happy though that she added a little of personal conflict with the main character so that you could relate with her even that much more. Not a lot of people go through scenarios like Tris does in the book. War and such. But everyone has personal conflicts with family, friends and relationships. So it was nice to see the complexity of a personal life continuing even through this massive community wide conflict. I am really excited to continue reading and find out what happens in the last book as well as other books that this author has written.

Amazon: One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

Divergent

Divergent By: Veronica Roth

This is a book/series that has been recommended to me for awhile and surprisingly I didn't reject the suggestion like I do with a lot of "trendy" books. It was on my list, it just took awhile to get to. But once I started this book I was hooked. This book reminded me of both the giver and the hunger games combined. That is the only way that I can explain it. I really enjoyed the first book and I am currently enjoying the second book. :) As usually here is what the Amazon review says:

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas By: John Boyne

This is a book that I have been wanting to read for a long while, however I knew being a book about two boys and the holocaust that it was going to be a very difficult read. I decided to try it out this weekend and immediately was sucked into the story of Bruno and Schmuel. I am literally minutes from reading it and quite honestly I am having a hard time putting into words what I felt about this book. Over all I really love it. I guess you can say that's morbid what I am about to say next; I really enjoy reading about the holocaust. ever since I started to learn about the Holocaust in 8th grade I have always had a deep respect and fascination with it. Well maybe fascination isn't the best word, I guess it would be a yearning to learn as much as I could. Although this book is as the author puts it "Just a book" and the story of Bruno and Schmuel is not at all true, but simply a way to show the innocence that existed in the midst of so much evil. The author presents an interesting point of view that I haven't read yet before. Again even though the characters aren't based off actual people, just the way John presents the perspective of the holocaust through the eyes of an innocent 9 year old boy who was simply looking for a friend and for something to do and stumbled upon a boy sitting on the other side of a large fence by his house. I think it was interesting too the way that Bruno's father changed at the end of the book. I could see myself reading this again and when my little girl gets a little older to understand; sharing it with her as well.

Inheritance

Inheritance By: Christopher Paolini

This is the last book of the Inheritance series. When it came out I told my husband that it was the only thing I wanted for Christmas. He was kind enough to get it for me and I started reading it, then we moved and I misplaced it and found it a few months later. Then we moved again and the book was lost in a box in a storage shed for close to 2 years. I was excited to find it again with this last move and decided to finish it no matter what.
Christopher Paolini has always been a little harder to read for me and most people I talk to. He does a good job setting up the story, but because of that it takes a long while to get into the books. But once you do its one that is hard to put down. This one proved to be the same except it started out fairly slow, picked up and then ended rather slowly as well. The end seemed to drag on just a bit. It felt as if Paolini himself felt sorry to see it end and had a hard time saying goodbye to the characters and the book. I am very glad that I got to finish this series though and I rather enjoyed the series.

Coraline

Coraline By: Neil Gaiman

This is a book I started to read as a fun quick read. We loved the movie and I wanted to see how close the movie was to the book. So I started it, but then I lost the book for awhile and couldn't finish it. But with this last move I found it again and decided to start over. The movie did a pretty good job, but of course didn't get as close to the book. For example, her parents weren't as mean as the movie portrayed, and Coraline solves a lot more of the problems on her own without a lot of help from the cat or the boy that's in the movie. This was a light fun read that I rather enjoyed. Its a little dark for younger kids and would recommend it for an older audience. Maybe pre-teems and up. 

Amazon says:

"Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house. . . ."

When Coraline steps through a door to find another house strangely similar to her own (only better), things seem marvelous.

But there's another mother there, and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.

Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and courage if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life.