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Thursday 26 January 2012

Review: On The Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves


I really enjoyed On the Island, I found myself engrossed in the book pretty much from the outset. And once I started reading I couldn't stop.

We see Anna and TJ on they're journey to the Maldives where they are due to spend the summer holidays. Anna is TJ's tutor as he has recently missed alot of school due to recovering from hodgekins lymphoma. They're journey to they're destination is plagued with delay after delay and finally after 30 hours travelling they are on the last lap when disaster strikes.

They find themselves stranded on a desert island with only the clothes that they are wearing. They hold out hope that they will be rescued. This isn’t just a normal stranded on a desert island story, it’s one that grabs you in as part of the story.
I found myself intrigued by the story, seeing Anna and TJ thinking of ways to survive, and I also thought that the things that they did and came up with were just brilliant! I really enjoyed reading about the years that they were stuck stranded on the island and loved the romance that you can see blossoming between them.
I thought they way that they were eventually rescued by fluke of a national disaster was a great part of the storyline and found reading about them back at home was almost even more intriguing than the island!!
I must say that I LOVED the ending - to me it was just perfect. I highly recommend this book and think that everyone should own a copy.

To buy your copy visit: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005L9B5YU/ref=cm_cr_mts_prod_img

Monday 16 January 2012

Review: Finding Justus by Amanda Bretz


I really enjoyed ‘Finding Justus’ the book is the story of Justus Kendall, an interior designer from St. Louis. I can think of nothing worse than going on your honeymoon with your best friend, but that’s the position Justus finds herself in. When she is touring the hotel she is set to re-model she finds her fiancĂ© Alex in one of the hotel suites, with a blonde wrapped in a bed sheet tangled in his arms. A month before her wedding.
So off she goes on her ‘honeymoon’ cruise with her best friend Krystal. Determined to enjoy herself and have a good girly time. Not long into the cruise they sign up for dance lessons and meet Miguel, an extremely good looking Latin dance instructor. I loved these initial scenes, you can see the chemistry between them. Obviously Justus is wary of getting involved with a man, even for just a fling.
It takes some heavy persuasion from Krystal for Justus to even consider meeting him for a drink, once they do she finds herself having to really evaluate her life, what happened in the past, what she wants in the future. It makes you think about your own happiness as well as your reading it which is something that I liked.
I was really willing Justus and Miguel to get together but after spending just one week together on a cruise, it’s time to say good bye. I love the way that this book ended and I would love to find out more about Justus.


Review: Then and Now: The Harmony of the Instantaneous All by Randy Attwood


I enjoyed this book, It tells the story of Stan Nelson and his time at KU in Lawrence, during winter and spring 1969 - 1970, Stan was like the central character in the middle of everyone that was involved in the scenes.
I loved the fact that we were hearing it in Stan’s narrative and the fact that we were going back in time to hear about his experiences and also other characters stories of that time period. I even enjoyed when Stan had to improvise certain characters parts. I particularly enjoyed Charlie’s parts of the story and his romance with Betty. We also had the use of diary extracts from Melvins diary which almost made it feel like you were reading a true story.
There were several romance’s in the book, the main one being with Stan and Yen-Li which then grew into an obsession, and then how he dealt with that. But this book isn’t just all romance, we see riots with police caught in the middle and also causing more trouble!
We also hear about the play that Stan decided to participate in, this was almost like another story in the story and I was glad that we got to ‘see’ the play being acted out. I thought the way the book ended was lovely and was glad to see that Stan would be ok at last.

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Review: Bleedover by Curtis Hox


When I started reading this I wasn’t quite sure where it was going, we see Dr Harriet Sterling claiming that the New Phenomenon of Bleedover is all around us, books, TV, films - all being mysteriously altered. If I’m honest I struggled at first to get my head round the technicality of bleedover but once I’d got it I was intrigued to find out more.

I enjoyed the way the book was split into three different sections, each section building the background story for our final confrontation. I found that each detail of the background was important to understand the reasoning behind the obvious frictions between Hattie and Corbin - almost a lifelong battle had been between them. As well as detailing the background we also found out about each of the scenarios that had happened in the few weeks leading up to the final confrontation.

Part One - The Apple we see Alice (Hattie’s best student) stumble across the success of incanting by Towns’ earlier in the day, and then repeated again in front of Alice, Hattie and Masumi. This is the beginning of the end, if it wasn’t for this success then the final showdown would of waited a little bit longer!

Part Two - The Portal was a really good section, I was trying to read the book quicker so I could find out what was behind that door, and when we found out thought it was amazing!

Part Three - The Symposium was quite tense to say the least, I had a vague idea by then what would be happening at the end - just not sure how it was going to end and in whose favour! I thought that these final scenes were brilliantly written and at last had the pace that I missed throughout the rest of the book.

I enjoyed reading about each of the characters as it was nice for the book to focus on them all rather than just our two main characters Hattie and Corbin. We see that Alice is faithful and loyal throughout, we see Masumi in turmoil over her beliefs and we see Towns’ pushed to the limits.

All in all I enjoyed the book, a little technical in places but I suppose that’s to be expected with the Sci-Fi Fantasy genre. I found the storyline itself very intriguing and it definitely got me thinking.



To buy a copy please visit: http://amzn.to/x4XZFp

Saturday 7 January 2012

Review: Heart of Glass by Christy Hayes


I absolutely loved this book. I enjoyed the fact that it was almost in two halves, we started off with the past and then moved on to the present.

You can tell right from the very beginning that sparks are going to fly between Danny and Kat, I really enjoyed reading the banter between them when they met. The way they both tried to hold back they're feelings towards each other - I was so pleased when they finally gave in!

The scenes with Danny's brother Kyle were so endearing to read, the author did a wonderful job of getting across just how much Kyle meant to Danny. And I thought that Kat's instant bonding with him was great too. I even found that I enjoyed it when Danny was explaining to Kat how to do the wall ramming - it was just so nice to see them getting closer and Kat really did show an interest.

The abrupt end to Kat and Danny's relationship was one of those points where I found myself going 'noooo' and honestly could not see how the present was going to pan out.

I don't want to give too much more away about the storyline but thought that the second half of the book just accelerated even more. It really is packed full of emotions; anger, hurt, love, passion, regret - it was that well written that as I was reading I literally could feel the emotions. I was hoping and praying that Kate and Danny could have a second chance.

This wasn't just a simple love story, there was more complexity to the storyline than just that, friendships & families and the consequences that they're actions can have as well as the influences they can make on people's lives just to name a few.

The depths in places of the sub story lines were just fantastic, I know I've already mentioned that it was well written but I honestly felt as though I was there living it out with them. The author has really made me feel that I actually know the characters and if I'm honest I'm missing them already! I don't know if there are any plans for us to hear any more from the characters from this book but I really hope that we do.

I also thought the description of the setting and surroundings was fantastic, it was written in such an amazing way that I felt as though I could feel the heat of summer, the breeze of the ocean, even the feel of the warm sand. I literally was there!

This book is definitely a MUST read and also one that you'll want to read over and over again

RUN and grab a copy now: Amazon.co.uk http://amzn.to/vtcbkv Amazon.com http://amzn.to/zJpPf2