Leaving Paradise By Simone Elkeles

My Review Rating 7/10



GOODREADS DESCRIPTION

Nothing has been the same since Caleb Becker left a party drunk, got behind the wheel, and hit Maggie Armstrong. Even after months of painful physical therapy, Maggie walks with a limp. Her social life is nil and a scholarship to study abroad—her chance to escape everyone and their pitying stares — has been canceled.

After a year in juvenile jail, Caleb’s free . . . if freedom means endless nagging from a transition coach and the prying eyes of the entire town. Coming home should feel good, but his family and ex-girlfriend seem like strangers.

Caleb and Maggie are outsiders, pigeon-holed as "criminal" and "freak." Then the truth emerges about what really happened the night of the accident and, once again, everything changes. It’s a bleak and tortuous journey for Caleb and Maggie, yet they end up finding comfort and strength from a surprising source: each other

MY REVIEW

I really enjoy reading Simone Elkeles books, although a YA writer she is one who can bridge the gap between YA and adults very nicely.

Two very different people are joined together by the most common yet dreadful experience. Both live in the town of Paradise, but for them it is nothing like the name.

Caleb Becker has just been released from having hit a girl whilst driving drunk and maiming her. Caleb now has to return to the small town of Paradise to rebuild his life. But for Caleb, returning to Paradise isn't so easy. His mother is trying to act like nothing has happened, his sister hardly talks to anyone and looks like a vampire chick, and his dad is never there.

Maggie Armstrong was that innocent person that Caleb hit, and she's been living in her own prison, the hospital.The worst news comes to her is that Caleb has been released early and now school is starting she will have to face him every day. Trying to get back her life, Maggie has been trying her best to walk right again. But during those times, the people who Maggie thought were her friends began to grow apart from her.

I really liked both Maggie and Caleb, they were both very real characters and the developing romance between them was very well written and believable. I love the way Simone Elkeles switches the point of view between them so we really get both sides of the story. I also felt that the relationships between Maggie & Caleb and their respective families were very well written - the accident and it's aftermath had a major impact on family life for everyone involved.

I'm really looking forward to the next novel, having left off the way it did makes me eager to know what happens with Caleb and Maggie.

If you are a fan of Perfect Chemistry I'm sure you'll enjoy Leaving Paradise and I would definitely recommend it.

The Passage By Justin Cronin

Product Description 
 

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

MY REVIEW

I never seem to be daunted by long books, I once read THE STAND by Stephen King when I was 16, and I think if you can read that, you can read anything. So the length of this book didn’t bother me. I had read other reviews about this book and they were fairly mixed, the word’s that were used quite frequently were “Boring” and “slow” but over time I have come to know that some people are incredibly impatient and if someone isn’t getting killed, chased or blown up then they tend to give up. I normally would consider myself one of those people, If a book doesn’t grab me in the first 50 pages then I simply read something else. I didn’t have a problem with THE PASSAGE.

The Passage is the first of a post-apocalyptic vampire trilogy.
This "apocalypse" is brought on by a single event, in this case a secret government experiment gone wrong. The test-subjects, twelve death row inmates and a six-year-old orphan Amy are injected with a virus which is believed to have near-magical powers. The experiment goes wrong; the human guinea pigs escape, and spread the virus with them. The infected transform into super-fast, super-strong "vampires" with an appetite for live meat and an aversion  to sunlight. They soon overrun America and  the Rest of The world. As Cronin puts it "It happened fast. Thirty two minutes for one world to die, another to be born".

Then we jump 100 years into the future and into a very different world. It could almost be a separate book as old characters are killed off and new ones are introduced and this is when some readers have accused the book of being slow, this wasn’t the case for me. I guess the book does slow down slightly, but at no point did It lose my interest, and after some introduction to new characters and their background, the story is back on track at an enthralling pace.

This second part of the book focuses on the descendants of the survivors of the initial outbreak who are living in an isolated colony. Amy, now immortal, is found by one of the colonists, and they embark on a mission to Colorado to the place of the original experiment with the hope of somehow eradicating the vampire’s or as the colonists call them “Virals”.

This book leads you on a rollercoaster ride of action and adventure. There's something for everyone here and I hope that readers will not be put off by the sheer size of this book and instead embrace this mesmerizing, epic tale. There have been many books that I have read that haven’t lived upto the hype, but for once this book deserves the attention. You would only be doing yourself a disservice by ignoring it. I look forward to reading the subsequent titles and I recommend this book to anyone.

About the Author

Born in New England, Justin Cronin is the author of Mary O Neill which won the Pen/Hemingway Award and the Stephen Crane Prize, and The Summer Guest. Having earned his MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop, Cronin is now a professor of English at Rice University and lives with his family in Houston, Texas.

Justin Cronin's Website 

Subject Zero Website

Infidel By Ayaan Hirsi Ali

My Review Rating 10/10. A definite Must read!

 This is the first book this year that I will rate 10/10. It was a page turner and I simply could not put this book down. I was compelled to read every page and was absolutely fascinated with Ayaan's upbringing and life as a young Muslim woman.

In 2004, Ayaan received numerous death threats due to the film she was making with a dutch filmmaker named Theo Van Gogh. At the time, Ali was collaborating with Van Gogh on his film, Submission, which questioned a culture and religion that oppresses Muslim .

In her compelling memoir, INFIDEL, Ali shares her extraordinary ordeal in surviving a "culture of virginity" that oppresses women, and threatens their liberty as well as their lives. From her own experiences, she reveals the brutal genital mutilation that is prolific in Somalia and unfortunately many other lands today.Her forced marriage-abuses suffered by other female Muslims. While en route to meet her new husband in Canada, Ayaan abruptly decided to seek political asylum in the Netherlands-where she became a Dutch citizen, enrolled in a university, and then met Van Gogh-a decision that ultimately transformed her into an internationally renowned spokeswoman for the rights of all Muslim women. Ali's ultimate conclusion is that Islamic practices are incompatible in many ways with modern life and democracy, and should not be tolerated in the West without radical transformation.

I found many things fascinating in this book, that Muslims are not really supposed to question their religion, as to be a Muslim means to submit, yet Ayaan continually asked and sought out answers to her many questions. Of-course today we live in a world that has become politically correct, and tries its best not to be offensive to other cultures , yet Ayaan urges us all to question.

There aren't more people speaking out because they're afraid of becoming the next Theo van Gogh; they're afraid some Islamic fundamentalist will stick a knife in their chest if they tell the truth. Look at what happened when this author spoke up. She had to go into hiding for weeks at a time in order to avoid execution. "Infidel" is a wake up call to the West just as surely as the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 were. We ignore the problem at our own peril.

Lover Mine By J.R Ward

Synopsis
 
John Matthew has come a long way since he was found living among humans, his vampire nature unknown. Taken in by The Brotherhood, no one could guess what his true history was-or his true identity.

Xhex has long steeled herself against the attraction to John Matthew. Until fate intervenes and she discovers that love, like destiny, is inevitable
 
My Review Rating  6/10

* Note: This Review does contain spoilers*
 
As a BDB fan I know that J.R Ward is great at spinning a tale and I have enjoyed most of the BDB books with the exception of Vishous story. First off I went into this book without much interest in Xhex and John Matthew, it just didn’t seem like the type of relationship that I wanted to read about, but I thought that by the end of the book my view would change. Unfortunately it didn’t. I was interested up until they got together but I seem to always view John Matthew as this adolescent pre trans, instead of the bulky vamp he is now.

There were a few things wrong with this book for me and I’ll start with Xhex. Yes we all know she is hard as nails, but how is it possible for a woman, excuse me symphath, to be kidnapped, beaten and raped every day for 4 weeks, to even think  about getting hot and heavy within just 2 days? Come on!!. It didn’t make any sense and was just not believable. Mind you that’s not the only amazing achievements of Xhex, she actually learned sign language in 2 days!! I was rolling my eyes by this point.
Darius and Tohrment’s adventures were ruined by an awful attempt at an old-fashioned language which was absolutely cringe worthy. If I had to read another “verily” I was going to throw the book at the wall. And there were pages of it. Yet again I rolled my eyes.
I would not categorize this book as Paranormal romance, as it was more on the side of Urban Fantasy, I don’t know how many pages I read until there was some actual sex. Seeing as I do prefer Urban Fantasy this was a welcome change and I enjoyed the different subplots.

Unfortunately I think that J.RWard is tending to drift away from the normal hetro romances in the first few books I enjoyed, It was bad enough reading about bondage and being gagged in Vishous story, and now she is venturing towards some pretty hard core,  gay stories. Sorry I'm not interested. If future books follow this path I shall not be buying. Quinn just happening to swing both ways is such a turn off. I find this all too much for my tastes.
All in all it was a mediocre read.
But if you are thinking of reading this book, then you have to read the earlier books in the series.

Spirit Bound - Vampire Academy Book 5 - By Richelle Mead

My Review Rating 9/10

Phew!! Well I finished this book in less than 2 days...as usuual with books in this series they are very hard to put down, and are extremely addictive.

What can I say about Spirit Bound?

It's going to be so difficult to write this review, because I can't talk about anything really without spoiling it. If you've read up to the last book, Blood Promise, you'll have questions. Well, most, if not all, of those get answered in one way or another. However, more questions arise; things happen in Spirit Bound that you wouldn't believe, and things are just so much more dangerous for Rose, in ways you wouldn't even consider.

Alot does happen in this book, but Spirit Bound wasn't as action packed as some of the other books in the series. This doesn't make the book bad at all, it just has a slightly different focus. Richelle's writing is just amazing! I love it! I am truly captivated by this series.

If I had my way, there would have been more Christian, more Adrian, and more Dimitri. Bad or good, I do love them both for different reasons.

This book is absolutely incredible! Was it my favourite of the series? No,that was probably Blood Promise, but then It's difficult to pick my favourite, it's all one story to me. But I absolutely loved it! I really can't wait to read Last Scarifice, the sixth and final book in the Vampire Academy series, which will be released 7th December 2010 - yet, I can wait, I don't want this series to end!

http://www.richellemead.com/

Other Books in this series you might enjoy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo By Stieg Larsson

My Review Rating 5/10

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO – By Stieg Larsson Book 1 of The Millenium Trilogy

The Main character in this book is Mikael Blomkvist, a financial journalist/author who has been recently convicted of libel and is possibly facing the end of his career. Then, just as Blomkvist is trying to figure out if his career is salvageable, an elderly tycoon named Henrik Vanger steps in with a lucrative offer of employment.

On the face of it, Henrik Vanger would like Blomkvist to write his autobiography of the Vanger family. But Henrik also wants Blomkvist to help him solve a cold murder case, and if the fabulous amounts of money he is willing to pay aren't enough of an enticement, he also offers to help Blomkvist defend himself against the presumably false libel charges, which makes this novel both a murder mystery and a revenge saga.
Into this scenario is thrown wild card Lisbeth Salander, a deranged computer hacker who joins forces with Blomkvist, and turns out to be the most interesting character in the book.

It is obvious that the author has put a lot of time and effort and probably many years of research into writing this book, it is also obvious that he is extremely intelligent. The problem with this novel for me was that it takes at least 100 pages before anything happens. There is a section in this book where Henrik talks to Blomkvist about the family history which at I thought further along in the book would turn out to be relevant, but it wasn’t, so why did the author include pages and pages unnecessary information ? It was completely boring and really irritating that at one point I just wanted to throw in the towel.
Another thing that irritated me slightly was the lengthy passages that were written as conversations which were dull, hard to follow, and at certain points I was unsure of who was saying what and to whom. Maybe that was due to the translation more than the fault of the writer but I am not sure why it was written that way andit did not demonstrate anything interesting enough about the characters to justify the presentation of the information.

If you can grin and bear it and get passed the 100 page mark, then this book turns out to just ok, are there better books to read though. YES. In no way is the hype justified with this book. The only saving grace was the character of Lisbeth Salander. She is somebody who I would like to read more about.

Twice Bitten - Book 2 of The Chicagoland Vampire Series By Chloe Neill

From the Publisher

Neill's briskly paced third Chicagoland Vampires paranormal romance (after 2009's Friday Night Bites) makes new readers comfortable with a thorough recap before diving into swiftly developing events that will satisfy returning fans. In the two months since graduate student Merit was involuntarily turned into the Cadogan House Sentinel by master vampire Ethan Sullivan, she's become part of the vampires' recent emergence into the public eye, battled another master vampire, suffered several emotional upheavals, and honed her fighting skills. Now she's assigned to guard the leader of North America's shape-shifters as the packs gather in Chicago to discuss the future of their often strained relationship with vampires. Merit's frequently snarky voice and amusing observations about the occasional absurdities of her situation combine with the magic of Neill's world in a refreshing take on urban fantasy.


My Review Rating 9/10

I just love this series, its one of my favourites and it gets better and better with each book.If the first book is Merit's birth as a vampire, the second is her tortured adolescence, then I'd call this one Merit finally coming into her own as a vampire. A lot more action than in previous books (of every kind). We got to know some of the other players, Merit got to know more of her fellow vampires, and things are nicely set up for future books.

I am not going into the details as that would spoil it. The story flowed well, was a quick read, and I had a lot of fun reading it. I'll definitely be getting the next one.

READ IT!!

Perfect Chemistry - By Simone Elkeles

My Review Rating 8/10


I have only recently started reading YA, and reading books like this makes me wonder why it has taken me so long.

Perfect Chemistry is set in Chicago in a small town ruled by a fierce social divide. The Northside of Fairfield is home to the wealthy and admired, whereas the Southside is where gangs and danger lurk at every corner. Northsider Brittany Ellis is everything a girl wants to be. She is rich, popular, captain of the pom squad, beautiful with an ideal set of friends and a picture perfect boyfriend and family. At least that's what Brittany wants everyone to think, you see, Brittany's life isn't perfect and everyday is a struggle to maintain control of that persona.

Southsider Alejandro Fuentes is one of the baddest bad boy's around town. He has a knack for creating fear and trouble everywhere he goes, usually it isn't his fault. Alex isn't affected either way since no one expects him to graduate High School, even if he secretly wants to. Alex is a fully fledged member of the Latino Blood gang that dictates Southside Fairfield. His sole focus is protecting his mother and brothers from the gang that rules his life, whilst maintaining his gang banger image. The irony baffles Alex tool.

On their first day as seniors at school, hot-headed-zero-tolerance-for-trouble teacher Mrs Peterson pairs Brittany and Alex together as chemistry partners for the rest of the year. Providing a new meaning to the term `opposites attract'.

The novel is written in a joint perspective, switching from Alex's and Brittany's perspective every chapter. This aids in understanding the characters for who they are inside and not what they are perceived to be by the rest of Fairfield. By getting access into both Brittany and Alex's head we understand the motives behind their actions, as well as who they really are inside and who they want to be.

Simone Elkeles explores the harsh realities of characters both South and North of Fairfield. She tackles issues like disabilities, drugs, sex, violence, loyalty and familial relationships whilst maintaining the lightheaded and sarcastic humour that she is renowned for.

It was a really enjoyable read.

Read it!!

Dark Lover Book1 - The Black Dagger Brotherhood By J.R.Ward

My Review Rating 8.5/10

In this first book You are introduced to the compelling and dangergous world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Wrath, the Blind King of the vampires, is asked by one of his closest friends, Darius, to help save the life of his half breed daughter Beth.

Beth, half human, half vampire, has no knowledge of the dark world of the vampires until Wrath shows up at her house one balmy night and from there the sparks begin to fly! All vampires start out as weak and have no vampire traits. Around the age of 25, they go through their transitions and have to drink the blood of a vampire of the opposite sex. This is what Darius has asked of Wrath. Although Wrath is against the idea to start, the death of his dear friend pushes him to do what he can and so he takes Beth on board. The more he spends time with her, the more he realises he loves her, a feeling which Beth returns ten fold!


I tend to rate the entertainment value of a book (despite whether I think it is actually well written or not) on how engrossed I become and how much of my to-do-list is being ignored while I am reading... This book had me up until 1.30 in the morning. This is a perfect book to take on a plane or have handy for a rainy day. You will not be bored. great FIRST BOOK TO A GREAT SERIES.

The Lovely Bones By Alice Sebold

My Review Rating 9/10

All I can say is Wow!! I have just finished this book and I cant tell you how much I enjoyed this book. I feel almost mournful to let this book go. I cant remember a time when a book brought up so many different emotions, I never cry when reading a book, with The Lovely bones it happened almost every other page. It was heartwrenching from page one and I really felt so much for all of the characters in this story. It really tugs at your heartstrings.