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Friday, March 27, 2015

ARC REVIEW KISSED BY KIMBERLY LOTH





I received a copy of this book in return for an honest review




Trapped in a dark cult, sixteen-year-old Naomi Aren has lived a quiet, albeit unhappy, life nestled deep in the hills of the Ozarks. With uncut hair, denim skirts, and only roses for friends, Naomi seldom questions why her life is different from other kids at school. Until the day her abusive father, who is also the cult’s leader, announces her wedding. Naomi must marry Dwayne Yerdin, a bully who reeks of sweat and manure and is the only one person who scares her worse than her father.

Then she meets Kai, the mysterious boy who brings her exotic new roses and stolen midnight kisses. Kisses that bring her a supernatural strength she never knew she had. As the big day approaches, Naomi unearths more secrets of about her father’s cult. She learns she has power of her own and while Kai may have awakened that power, Naomi must find a way to use it to escape Dwayne and her father—without destroying herself



I love this kind of book, the whole cult vibe, intense, and very mysterious. Having read quite a bit about cults I feel this book was accurate to a certain type of cult, the descriptions and plot of this book very interesting and on point.

I liked the fact that the MC has a greenhouse that she feels loved and safe in and that the new boy brings her roses, I love roses. The greenhouse had a magical feel to it and the author wrote it beautifully.

The reason this got four starts instead of five is for the love triangle between Naomi, Kai and Puck....eh...the storyline petered out for me then a bit. However the ending was great and this was a well written fun read! Would for sure read this author again.







Tuesday, March 24, 2015

TOP TEN TUESDAY- TOP TEN BOOKS FROM CHILD HOOD I WOULD LIKE TO REVISIT




Top Ten Tuesday is a meme host by The Broke and Bookish where we showcase a list of our top ten books. This week are our top ten books from childhood we would like to revisit.

By revisit I am going to go with "wish I could read again for the first time" because most of my child hood favorites I have revisited again...and again...





1)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond





2)
Dealing With Dragons





3)
You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye

This one is about a girl whose mom gets cancer and she has to deal with her death



4)
The First Boxcar Children Book



5)
Any babysitter club books, but this is my favorite super special




6)
Kate's Book

This is a girl's point of view as her family travels on Oregon Trail



7)
Sweet Valley Kids Lila's Haunted House Party



8)
Sideways Stories from Wayside School



9)
Rilla of Ingleside, Anne of Gables # 8

I always favored Rilla above Anne, I did a book report on this book where I had to dress up and act like Rilla




10)10)Genie and the Witch's Spell by Alice Low

For some reason I can't find the cover of this book anywhere. My mom got it for me cause I could relate to not being good at my Math homework
"Genie has a hard time with her school work until she and Merlina, a witch who has trouble learning her spells, enter into a partnership to help one another."





















Sunday, March 22, 2015

ARC REVIEW- Flunked Fairy Tale Reform School by Jen Calonita









Would you send a villain to do a hero's job? An exciting new twisted fairy tale series from award-winning author Jen Calonita.

Full of regret, Cinderella's wicked stepmother, Flora, has founded the Fairy Tale Reform School with the mission of turning the wicked and criminally mischievous into upstanding members of Enchantasia.

Impish, sassy 12-year-old Gilly has a history of petty theft and she's not too sorry about it. When she lifts a hair clip, she gets tossed in reform school-for at least three months. But when she meets fellow students Jax and Kayla, she learns there's more to this school than its sweet mission. There's a battle brewing and she starts to wonder: can a villain really change?



I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Fact one: The title is misleading, just saying.

It's no secret I am not a big fan of Middle-grade fiction. But the premise of this novel (and that I could read it on my phone for free) drew me in. It's a pretty imaginative simply read with a bunch of throw backs to fairy tales, which I am always a fan of. However I didn't care for the MC, Gilly. She was pretty whiny and full of herself. She steals to help her family eat, is cocky and gets caught. SHe also talks back to EVERYONE and when she gets sent to the fairy tale school she gets in a ton of trouble right from the start.

One of my biggest issues with this book came from a very socially conscious part of me. I didn't like that when the headmistress found out WHY she stole, it didn't make a difference. This wasn't a girl who was becoming a villains, this was a girl who didn't want her four younger brothers and sisters to starve. Not just that but EVERYONE in their little town knew how poor they were and NO ONE helped. So it kind of fell apart for me there. I get there is poverty and some people don't have what others do. However, in a land with magic being ruled by girls that had their own hard knocks, you would think someone would go, "oh hey that family who is starving and living in a boot? Let's give them some help." Gilly's second oldest sister was always a pain in the butt, she gets angry at Gilly for stealing and then when she realizes that was the only way they were eating (and getting her pretty things like hair clips) she gets pissed when Gilly won't come home from school at the end and help out. The end of the book also had a moral feel that I didn't like. a very: "Doing things the easy way isn't the right way" feel. Says who? just because something is easy doesn't make it wrong either. Oh well, I digress.

The plot was pretty basic, evil brewing in a villain reform school, high jinx ensues...."Which of the reformed villains isn't quite so...reformed?" It was pretty obvious which one was the true baddie, though I did enjoy how the author reimagined the Sea Witch...pretty funny.

Then Gilly, with the help of three other students, stops a really bad (not just faking it at reform school) from killing all the royalty and taking over the kingdom. When I say she had help, what I really mean was she had a boy she kind of liked and two female friends kind of just following her around while she was awesome and did everything. Which for me was hard to get behind. I have an eleven year old daughter, so the idea that this 12 year old girl fought evil, defeated evil and saved a whole school was kind of far fetched. Then I thought to myself, "but you believed it in Harry Potter, why is this different?" Well as I pondered this I came to the conclusion that while Harry was likeable and interesting, Gilly wasn't and in the end it all came down to the writing. Harry Potter is written beautifully, this is only so so.

While this book wasn't the worst, it wasn't the best either. I enjoyed it, rolled my eyes a few dozen times, and finished it in a day. Maybe my daughter would have liked it more.