The Tension of Opposites Trailer!

This post is just to show you a book trailer. It's for the upcoming release, The Tension of Opposites, by Kristina McBride. Here it is!



Doesn't that look great?! I want to read the book so much more now!

The Tension of Opposites will be released May 25th, 2010 by Egmont USA

xox ~Alice

Review: Dear John

Book: Dear John
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Pages: 335
Published: December 1st, 2009

"Dear John", the letter read. And with those two words, a heart was broken and two lives changed forever.
When Savannah Lynn Curtis comes into his life, John Tyree knows he is ready to turn over a new leaf. An angry rebel, he had enlisted in the army after high school, not knowing what else to do. Then, during a furlough, he meets Savannah, the girl of his dreams. The attraction is mutual and quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah vowing to wait for John while he finishes his tour of duty. John must choose between love and country. Now, when he finally returns to North Carolina, John will discover how love can transform us in ways we never could have imagined.

General Overview: Saddest. Book. Ever. I wanted so badly to cry at the end, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I have a feeling that this review is going to have a lot of capitalized sentences and many, many exclamation points and question marks.

Characters: I'm used to reading books from a girl's point of view, so it was very refreshing to see things from the point of view of a guy, for once. I think John is more observant than many other guys, and I very much enjoyed reading from his perspective. I liked Savannah at first, but in the last few chapters, I really started to hate her. I know the things that happened weren't her fault -- okay, maybe they were kinda her fault -- but I hated her anyway for what she did to John! What did he do to deserve that?????? I ASK YOU, WOMAN!!!!

Plot: The plot was fairly fast-moving, and although I thought that John and Savannah's relationship moved very quickly (which is acknowledged in the book) I thought that it was somewhat realistic, although of course it had many elements that for sure made it believably fictional. I loved reading about their dates, and how the met, and I loved the parts with John's dad! I felt so horrible for his dad, though. John never really appreciated him until too late, though I do think that John regretted pulling away from his father; he just didn't know how to apologize and make things better. So, having said that, I do have one more comment to make...I HATED THE ENDING!!!! OH MY GOD WHY DID IT HAVE TO END THAT WAY???? I WANTED TO CRY!!! I DIDN'T, BUT MY POINT STILL STANDS!!!

Writing: Okay, so I don't think Nicholas Sparks is a spectacular writer, but he definitely knows how to tell a story in such a way that you become totally absorbed in it, and he is an expert at creating characters that you can completely identify and connect with in such a way that you feel as if you know the character. His writing style is clear and concise, and although it may not be as flowery or poetic as some other authors' writing, his books are beautifully written.

Cover: So, this cover is actually the movie poster. All I have to say is: Channing Tatum.
Yeah.

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Waiting on Wednesday (1)

Hey guys! WoW is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking The Spine! Here's my pick for the week:


Glimmerglass by Jenna Black
Published May 25th, 2010 by St. Martin's Griffin

And look! Here's a summary! (:

Dana Hathaway doesn’t know it yet, but she’s in big trouble. When her alcoholic mom shows up at her voice recital drunk, Dana decides she’s had it with being her mother’s keeper, so she packs her bags and heads to stay with her mysterious father in Avalon: the only place on Earth where the regular, everyday world and the magical world of Faerie intersect. But from the moment Dana sets foot in Avalon, everything goes wrong, for it turns out she isn't just an ordinary teenage girl—she's a Faeriewalker, a rare individual who can travel between both worlds, and who can bring magic into the human world and technology into Faerie.
Soon, she finds herself tangled up in a cutthroat game of Fae politics. Someone's trying to kill her, and everyone wants something from her, even her newfound friends and family. Suddenly, life with her alcoholic mom doesn't sound half bad, and Dana would do anything to escape Avalon and get back home. Too bad both her friends and her enemies alike are determined not to let her go . . .

Review: How The Hangman Lost His Heart

Book: How The Hangman Lost His Heart
Author: K.M. Grant
Pages: 256
Published: September 18, 2007

What's a nice girl like Alice doing with a hangman called Dan Skinslicer?
He likes a good clean killing and a hearty supper afterwards.
She likes pretty dresses and riding a well-bred horse.
But fate throws them together on a mission of mercy--to save Alice's poor uncle Frank's head and restore his dignity.
Soon they find themselves on the run from every soldier in London.
It could be their necks next!

General Overview: The premise of this book sounded interesting, but I wasn't sure how much I'd like it -- that's why I checked it out from the library. Unfortunately, How The Hangman Lost His Heart just didn't do it for me.

Characters: Okay, the thing is, I kind of liked the characters. I liked Alice's wit and stubbornness and I liked Dan's resolution and dedication. Sadly, I just never connected with either of them. I enjoyed their casual banter and easy relationship, and I liked the dialogue, especially the ones that involved the major and Ffrench, but I was never able to sympathize with any of them, particularly not Alice. I found that I was disappointed with these characters more often than I was happy with them.

Plot: This is supposed to be an adventure book, and while there are definitely some elements of action in here, sometimes the plot felt like it was moving too slowly for me and it got too repetitive! And, not to mention the fact that the inside flap synopsis is really quite misleading. Alice is definitely not the lady she's supposed to be, and Dan isn't as rough as the synopsis makes him seem. I thought the plot could have been more absorbing and more...well, adventurous! I had already predicted the entire storyline of the book from the first few chapters, and what do you know? I was right. That seriously disappointed me.

Writing: This is reasonably easy book to read. The writing doesn't have any amazing prose, nor is there a lyrical quality to the words, but it flowed. And I mean it really flowed! Some authors, even though their writing sounds beautiful, write with sentences that don't flow together! They seem very choppy sometimes, and I hate when that happens. However, K.M. Grant definitely writes with a certain ease that makes her books easy to read.

Cover: Hmm...I wouldn't say that this is an exceptional cover, the font confuses me a bit (why does it change?), I do like the background and the crows, even though they're not of much significance to the story. I don't think this cover fits the book at all, but it's a nice try.

Overall: 2 out of 5 stars

Claire de Lune Trailer!

Okay, I was just on The Compulsive Reader and I saw this amazing book trailer! It's for an upcoming release called Claire de Lune, and I really want to read this book! It sounds great, and the trailer makes me want it even more.

Here it is:



xox ~Alice

Teaser Tuesday (1)

Hey guys! Teaser Tuesday is a meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading!
Wanna participate? Here's how it works:

• Grab the book you're currently reading!
• Open to a random page
• Pick out two sentences (non-spoilery sentences, thanks very much!)
• Be sure to add the title and the author of your book so your readers can add the books to their TBR lists if they like your quotes

So the book I'm reading right now is called How The Hangman Lost His Heart, and it's a fairly easy book to read. Anyway, here are my sentences!

"Come on, he seemed to be saying, come on. Alice (hehe, this character has the same name as me! ...Sorry, that's clearly not part of the book. Anyway.) could feel panic creeping pox-like over her skin, because even as she stood there the city was beginning to wake and early traders were already splashing their way through the oily skim left by the rain."

Pg. 24, How The Hangman Lost His Heart by K.M. Grant

Comment with the links to your teasers!

Review: The Unwritten Rule

Book: The Unwritten Rule
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Published: March 16, 2010

Everyone knows the unwritten rule. You don't like your best friend's boyfriend.
Sarah has had a crush on Ryan for years. He's easy to talk to, supersmart, and totally gets her.Lately it even seems like he's paying extra attention to her. Everything would be perfect except for two things: Ryan is Brianna's boyfriend, and Brianna is Sarah's best friend. Sarah forces herself to avoid Ryan and tries to convince herself not to like him. She feels so guilty for wanting him, and the last thing she wants is to hurt her best friend. But when she's thrown together with Ryan one night, something happens. It's wonderful...and awful. Sarah is torn apart by guilt, but what she feels is nothing short of addiction, and she can't stop herself from wanting more...

General Overview: I love Elizabeth Scott! She's such a talented writer, and her books, to me, are very realistic and she is unafraid to tell the truth, no matter how ugly.

Characters: Wow. Scott really brought these characters to life. I could identify with Sarah, and I thought Ryan seemed sweet (if not a little short on words). Honestly, I wish Sarah had been a little more gutsy, and Ryan too. If only they'd just stood up for themselves from the beginning, they wouldn't have all the drama they found themselves faced with. And oh my god, I hated Brianna with a fiery passion. She annoyed me so.so.so.much. But it takes a talented writer to create a character that a reader can both hate and sympathize with, and that's exactly what happened to me with Brianna.

Plot: The plot wasn't the best part of the novel for me. It seemed a little repetitive at times. Sarah and Ryan's relationship seemed to move in some sort of cycle, until they finally found it in themselves to get together. Don't get me wrong, I didn't not like the plot; I just thought that it could've been tweaked a little from that typical sort of story and could've kept me guessing a bit more than it actually did. The ending, however, very much took me by surprise. I thought that it was sad, yes, but sometimes things in life really do end that way, and even though Sarah didn't think so, I think she did get a happy ending -- she just didn't see it that way.

Writing: Scott's writing is absorbing and neat. I loved how she didn't shy away from the uglier side of people and relationships, but instead embraced it completely and brought it to full attention. I hate it when, in books, the author sugarcoats the less appealing aspects. Elizabeth Scott, however, is most definitely not one of those writers.

Cover: I like it! I think it's cute, and it suits the book perfectly. I've noticed a sort of pattern in Scott's books' covers -- you never see the models' faces, and I think that fits for the type of book she writes.

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

Review: To Kill A Mockingbird

Book title: To Kill A Mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee
Pages: 374
Published: October 11th, 1988

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deepyly moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos...This regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.

General Overview: This book took me a week to read. A week. Books hardly ever take me that long to finish. I did, however, very much enjoy it.

Characters: Although I enjoyed Scout's narrative, I thought she seemed too mature and insightful for her age -- she's supposed to be eight, yet she sounds like she's at least sixteen. I did think that she was extremely perceptive and wise, and I really enjoyed that for a change, instead of girls who are somewhat ditzy and clueless. It was also interesting to read from the POV of such a young character, at an age where not much of the world is yet seen or understood. My favorite character by far, however, was Atticus. I loved his shrewdness and his intelligence, and I liked how he was so very capable of standing up for himself and for his family. He seemed, to me, to have the personality and mannerisms that most men should aspire to also possess.

Plot: Okay, this book is a classic, and I can understand why. The book addresses serious issues such as racial discrimination, though also moral values such as family and trust. Though this book has its light moments, it is, for the most part, a somber book, and I don't think it is to be taken lightly. Half of this book revolves around introducing the children, Jem and Scout, and their obsession with a reclusive man named Boo Radley. The second is about a case their father, a lawyer, has taken on about a man named Tom Robinson. The majority of this book is not centered around Tom Robinson's case -- it's centered around how the children grow and how they act, and their family and the environment they grew up in.

Writing: It might be a little hard to understand, as are all classics. But once you do, you jump right in. Lee's writing is absorbing and clear, and I very much enjoyed her style of writing.

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

In My Mailbox (1)

Hey! This meme was started by Kristi at The Story Siren and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie!

So, this isn't really anything in my mailbox since, well, I haven't gotten any books for review (yet!) so these are pretty much books I borrowed from my friends or checked out from my library (:

From library:



The Demon King -- Cinda Williams Chima
How The Hangman Lost His Heart -- K.M. Grant

Bought:



Incarceron -- Catherine Fisher

Well...that's kind of it. Next time...there'll be more! (:

xox ~alice

First Post!

Hi! Okay, so I've created this blog...now I'm not sure what to do with it. But I will be reviewing as often as I can and hosting contests...but later on (:
So I guess...an introduction?
My name's Alice. I'm nearly 14, and I'm nearly a freshman in high school. I spend most of my money buying books and I read pretty much 24-7. I get stressed way too easily, I have two brothers, I tend to ramble a lot, and (like most of the human population) I want to be a writer. I haven't always known that I want to be an author, but I have known since I was pretty young. Maybe when I was nine. Which would be...*counts on fingers* Fourth Grade.
So...bye! I hope you guys like this blog! (: