Taylor took the star-crossed lovers tale into her hands and wove an imaginative new story of a world beside our own where the slaves of angels rise up to take their freedom. A war rages for over a hundred years. Friends are betrayed and love is tested.
I couldn't put this book down. The author did an amazing job getting me involved with the characters. I really enjoyed the creatures and how well they were described. Poor Karou, all she wants is to know who and what she is, but knowledge is a dangerous thing. And Akiva, the tortured soul, thinking his love was gone forever only to find her and lose her again. I'm certainly hoping for a happy ending for them.  
Would I suggest you read it... YES!!  Do it!

 I always like to wait at least a day after reading a book before I write a review, let everything settle and sink in. When I was first finished I was all ready to give the book 5 stars, now I almost want to drop it to three stars. So I compromised and settled on 4.

I try not to let my personal pet peeves color my opinion too much, but really how many times can you say that a character's words are choppy, or that his scar turns his smile into something grotesque. I know, I know, I'm not an author so I don't know how hard it is. I'm just saying it annoys me to no end.

Also, what time period is this? There was a little info at one point about how the world became this way and it had to do with looking for fuel. Okay so we are in the future. They have some seemingly advanced technology, cloaking mechanisms and tracking devices, but they live like they are in the dark ages, riding in donkey pulled carriages and the like. I assume the reason the women went back to being nothing more than property was the tyrants fault.

So my pet peeve wouldn't have brought the rating down quite that much, but I also have to admit that when the second book comes out I probably will not be standing in line at midnight. I will read the second book when it comes out but I'm not going to be pining away for it in the meantime.

Overall, I do recommend it. The story has some good twists and kept me reading through the night. The romance is a big part of the story but I didn't think it took away from the plot too much, but helped to keep Rachel more real.

Wow. So, instead of abortion why not just wait until you know if your kid is worthy of life or not. Then if you find that you'd rather s/he hadn't been born they can still be useful as spare parts. What a crazy way to look at the debate around abortion rights.

There was this chapter that was insanely disturbing; you see a character being unwound. See him lose his sense of self, but still know what's going on. Even though he doesn't feel any physical pain, he's scared and wants to live.
 
Because of this book I've thought a lot about what I think and how I judge people, especially the younger kids. I've also added every other book by Neal Shusterman I could find to my to-read pile.

**spoiler alert** I loved this book. I really enjoyed going back and forth, from Jacob in his prime at the circus to Jacob as a ninety-something old man in a retirement home. I'd heard the ending was predictable, but I really didn't think so. Even though I was hoping he and Marlena would end up together, I was seriously doubting it would happen. I also really enjoyed the ending where he gets away from his life at the retirement center and rejoins the circus. The place that is truly his home.

Marlena was a not-so-typical, typical 30's woman. She's not typical because she ran away and joined a circus. However in almost every other respect she is what I picture women from the 30s to be like. She was a little weak, didn't speak up for herself much. Not the heroine we like to see today. But that's how women were treated then, that's how they were expected to behave.

Jacob, was so perfect for me. I loved his innocence at the beginning, how he hadn't realized how bad things were outside of Cornell. His devastation after his parents died. Wanting to just go, to get away from it all. And as an old man, just wanting to be who he always was. Wanting to be noticed, but not wanting to tell his secrets. I couldn't help but compare him to Rosie. So many of the nurse's and even the doctor thought he was a trouble patient. They always said he was depressed or this or that. When really all he needed was for someone to speak to him in a way he could understand. This person just happens to be Rosemary, which could be a version of Rosie. I found this interesting; Jacob helps Rosie and then Rosemary helps Jacob.

Something I will have to buy a copy of, and will be recommending to everybody.

**spoiler alert** I felt like the second book was very similar to the first in that the iron fey have stolen something and our favorite characters must go into enemy territory to get it back.
There seemed to be two main points in this story, the first being the love triangle. At first Ash tells Meghan that they cannot be together since they are summer and winter. Of course, we all know that Puck is in love with Meghan. Meghan is convinced that Ash will not renounce his family for her but she also knows that she doesn’t love Puck like she loves Ash. Ash eventually does tell his mother that he is in love with Meghan and chooses to be exiled from the Nevernever. Meghan, ignoring Pucks pleas and her father’s threats, follows.
The second main point in the story was that Meghan has somehow received the powers of the iron glamour. And apparently by the little hint we got from Virus she is going to be the next ruler of the iron fey. How will this affect the story? Will she be able to stay with Ash even though she’s going to be the ruler of his true enemy as well as being summer?

I don't read a lot of non fiction books, just not my thing really.  But a book about books, come on!  How could I possibly refuse?!  Now I know this may make me sound a little ignorant, but I did not know how many books there were about books.

So Book Lust is a list of books that the author, Nancy Pearl, thinks are worth reading.  From A to Z she lists her favorite subjects and authors.  In just her introduction alone I found myself laughing and looking forward to what she has to say about books for over 250 pages.  I did add quite a few books to my to-read pile, I actually had a pen and paper handy while reading this so I didn't have to stop and look up the books on my library website.  However, there were a lot of times when they were just lists.  And even though I might be interested in a subject, just the title of a book may not be enough to get me to run down to the bookstore.

4/5 stars for making my to read list jump by about 50 books.

Sorry it's been awhile, sometimes real life gets in the way.  Don't you hate when life interrupts your time to enjoy books?   I'll keep uploading more reviews and trying to figure this blogging thing out as I go.  In the meantime, what are you reading?  Any recommendations for what I should pick up next?  I always have a lot of books to read but I never know which one to pick up next.

“You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to pin me down with a hundred thousand arms, but I will find a way to resist.”
Lauren Oliver has such a way with words; she brings everything alive with her beautiful descriptions. I really enjoyed reading this story. I had my doubts about a world without love, but it worked. Maybe because it wasn’t just love between two people, there was no love between friends or parents and their kids. It was actually believable to me; life wasn’t that much different unfortunately.
The ending really surprised me which I love, I hate being able to guess what's going to happen.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys dystopian or YA in general. I can’t wait to read the next book.

4/5 stars

Jacob by Jacquelyn Frank

 I really liked how the demons were good, it was different. That whole idea made the book rather refreshing, demons being good and protecting the humans. How demons praise Christianity because it stopped people from using magic to hunt them. I didn't completely love it, and I'm not sure why. The only thing that kept coming to mind while I was reading it was that it reminded me of Twilight. How the immortal creature didn't want to bring the human into his life. How quickly they fell in love. And of course the choice of names for characters. The main female character was at least strong and able to fight for herself, and even save her man a couple times.

However, this was well written and I'll be reading the next book.

4/5 stars

Just getting this started so bear with me everybody.  I'm figuring this whole thing out and adding all the review for books that I've already written.  Thanks so much for stopping by my page, leave a comment and give me some advice :)

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Meghan is a typical high school misfit, or at least that's what she thought. When her brother gets switched with a changeling and she learns fey and other mythical creatures are real she goes on a quest to get him back. Along with her best friend who just happens to be the Puck, from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night Dream.
Now she has to face wisps and kelpies, ogres, chimaera and goblins. Not to mention Queen Titania, who would gladly turn her into any number of animals so she can be hunted. And in order to get help she has to make deals, where she may have to give up her youth, her voice or even her first born. And we wont even get started on Ash.

This was a wonderful beginning to a series and I can't wait to read the next book.

4/5 stars

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

**spoiler alert** Ok, so I've heard a lot of people saying the same thing's I was saying before I read this. "ANOTHER Cinderella story, really?" or "I'm really not that into sci-fi". Well, I'm here to tell you to try to get over it and give this book a shot. To be completely honest I wouldn't have looked twice at this book except it was one of the book of the months for a group I'm in. I was pleasantly surprised.

Obviously everybody knows the story of Cinderella, so giving a summary is pretty much pointless.
Though there are many similarities between this story and the ones we're all familiar with; evil step-mother and sister, father dead while she was young, treated like dirt. There are also many differences. Main among them being the whole cyborg issue. As a cyborg not only is Cinder mistreated by her family but also by the whole community. Cyborgs are discriminated against to the point where children aren't allowed to play in the street near her.

Another huge difference is that we don't get to see the happily ever after. Instead we see Prince Kai disgusted that he could have had feelings with not only a cyborg but a Lunar. My oh my, but where and how will this story end? As the story ends on an obvious cliffhanger, we are left to wonder how Cinder will escape her prison, whether she will be able to dethrone the queen of Luna. I will definitely be watching for the next book.

4/5 stars

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

"You are going to die"

A book set during WWII and told by Death himself, you can rightfully assume that as a reader you are going to see characters die. However, the war is more of a background to Death's story of Liesel. This book is instead about the power of words. Death even said that Hitler started the war with words alone.

Liesel steals her first book before she even knows how to read, she's just compelled. After she's taught to read she becomes obsessed with books, reading them and stealing them. She steals a book out of a fire and learns why they want to burn them. Words have power to tell a different story than the one they've been told to believe.

I not only enjoyed the story, I fell in love with the language of the book. Things like words sitting on the table or words giving somebody a black eye. Words were not merely spoken they were felt and seen and tasted. Words are powerful.

I'm going to recommend this book to everyone. Anyone who enjoys reading and words should read this. It's wonderful.

5/5 stars