Fallen by Lauren Kate

Hey, this was sooner than expected, but I think that I can read better when under pressure. I had a book on hold at the library, and it finally was my turn, and I had two weeks to read it. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to finish it on time, but I finished reading it on Tuesday, and kept on sneaking to my room during Thanksgiving to read a couple pages.

All of her life, Luce has seen the shadows. They stay at a distance, until one night everything goes wrong, and she’s blamed for the death of a friend. This wins Luce a one way ticket to Sword & Cross – a gothic reform school. That’s where she sees Daniel, and instantly feels like she’s met him before. Who is Daniel and what did he do to get himself into Sword & Cross? And how will Luce get rid of the persistent shadows that are slowly closing in on her?

As I was reading this book, I was totally into it. The beginning was engaging and it kept me interesting through almost the entire thing. I kept guessing what the prologue meant, and who was who. The characters are fit well together, and the plotline goes at just the right speed. But as I kept reading, I started to get wary. The only thing that Luce was doing in some part of the story was just going back and forth between the two guys. She would finish talking with one guy and then it would go straight to the next one, and over and over again.

Now, the thing about Luce is that her character isn’t that great. She’s a little shy and has some sense of humour, but other than that she has no personality. By the time that things were speeding up in the book, and secrets were revealed and fights were going on… I was expecting that Luce would step up and be a man. Her character should have developed as she went through her hardships, but she just stayed the same! And when she was the only person who didn’t know what was actually happening, she was just a zombie and didn’t even get angry. Her boyfriend told her that she didn’t need to know, so she excepted it and did what she was told like a good little girl.

If you think that that isn’t bad enough, then get this. When the final showdown fight started between good and evil, her boyfriend shooed her away to safety, and let her cower in a room while he fought for her. I know that she wouldn’t have stood a chance, but still… she didn’t question it at all! I also know that some people have personalities like that… but come on! I want to hear a story about the people who are unique, and have some sort of flaw other than being a lovesick pansy.

Overall though, it wasn’t a bad book. Maybe Luce will get better in the next one, I believe that it is called Torment (check out her website and other books there). And I shall give this book a 4.

Later Cheese Graters,

MRR

Tithe by Holly Black

Wow, this went quicker then I thought it would. This book was pretty short, because it had short pages and bigger writing then usual. It was the perfect book to get me back in the mood of reading! I’m currently in the middle of another book, and I feel like I’m on a role!

 Kaye’s life had always been moving and changing, but now the one thing that had remained a solid memory – was turning into something she could never thought it could. Now she struggles to find the truth about the cruel faerie world that she once had thought was about innocent fun. Kaye has to cope as she gets wedged in the middle of two sides that are constantly at a secret war. As everything she knows topples over, and she slowly falls for a brave and confusing dark Knight. How will she ever untangle herself from the Fey world?

 

LOVED this book. It vas very good, yes? Yes. I’ve never really found a book about faeries that I really liked, but this one was wonderfully written. The plot line seemed to on forever, but only because there were so many twists and turns that it kept on going even after I thought it would be the end of things. It kept me on my toes, and it kept me longing and hoping for more romance stuff, because fantasy and romance work well together.

Even though the faerie land was beautiful and very alluring, but the realness of Kaye’s previous life is also something that is really interesting to read about. How she moves around so much, and how bad her mom is at parenting her, it just fits the whole story together very nicely.

I give this book a well deserved 4.

Here is her website, http://www.blackholly.com/ and Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Later Cheese Graters.

MRR

The Golem’s Eye by Jonathan Stroud

It’s probably been a month! A long month at that. All work work work, no time for reading what so ever – to finish this book I had to just sit down and read until 1 o’clock. And now I have to get over how proud I am to finish that one book and get on to the other 20 on my shelf. I’m sure that I’ve said this all before, about how much stuff I have to read.. but I counted today, and there is exactly 20. Whew man.

Two year after the Amulet of Samarkand was returned to it’s proper place, Nathaniel is growing up quickly. Assistant to the head of International Affairs, and gaining status in the magician world, Nathaniel has got a busy future ahead of him. Hunting down the Resistance and trying to figure out what the cause of all the mysterious attacks that are happening constantly throughout London, Nathaniel finds himself missing his old slave and summons Bartimaeus once again.

Sorry about the crappy summery, I’m just going to go ahead and say that it really has been a while. The first thing that I have to say about this book, would be that it was not as good as the first one. The best part about the first book in this serious was that Bartimaeus’ point of view was so much fun to read, because he was hilarious. His character was the humour in the book, and he was the one who made everything more enjoyable. In the second one, you don’t see as much of him as you did in the first one. There is another character’s point of view that took over… and it just wasn’t the same.

If you just want to talk in terms of the story though, it was really good. Nicely woven together with two opposite points of view, and a even a couple different mysteries in one plot line. I really liked this book, and I would have read it much more quickly if I had the time.

I’ll give this one a 3.5 (one less mark then the first one) And here is the website once again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJqygAs2uq4

Now, I have a present for you guys. I made a nice Wordle for the blog at this point, if you don’t know what it is – then check it out. http://www.wordle.net/ You basically give Wordle the URL and they’ll make a little poster of the most used words on that webpage. You can change the font, the colours, and the layout. It’s all really cool.

So there you go! Maybe I’ll see you next month.

Later Cheese Graters,

MRR