Monday Moaning

I hate Mondays!

The first day of school after the vacation is always terrible. Your mind still thinks it's vacation but your teachers tell you otherwise. Had my driver's license theory exam and failed... for the second time -.-
Felt like an idiot...

Now after a full day of homework, baby sitting and tutoring. Sitting on my ass and enjoying the new episode of Game of Thrones. If you aren't watching this yet... you should! ^^

Tyrion's awesomeness is unlimited.

Still reading book 1 of Game of Thrones which isn't going as fast I would want it to go.

Also started Delirium by Lauren Oliver that I'm loving already :)

Furthermore reading the Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. It has a strange gruesome attraction and I'm fascinated and repulsed at the same time.

Continuing Persuasion, didn't make a lot of progress, will make up for it this week.

More reviews are coming so stay posted!

What will you be reading this week? Tell me in the comments!




Credit tyrion gif: strange spanners: Explosion of Game of Thrones Awesome

Review of Gone Gone Gone by Hannah Moskowitz

Gone, Gone, Gone 

by Hannah Moskowitz

5 stars

It's a year after 9/11. Sniper shootings throughout the D.C. area have everyone on edge and trying to make sense of these random acts of violence. Meanwhile, Craig and Lio are just trying to make sense of their lives. Craig’s crushing on quiet, distant Lio, and preoccupied with what it meant when Lio kissed him...and if he’ll do it again...and if kissing Lio will help him finally get over his ex-boyfriend, Cody. Lio feels most alive when he's with Craig. He forgets about his broken family, his dead brother, and the messed up world. But being with Craig means being vulnerable...and Lio will have to decide whether love is worth the risk.

*blurb from Goodreads

The gif that describes it all ;)

Credit

Review

Craig is a fifteen year old boy who loves his animals more than anything. But now a burglar broke in, his animals have all escaped and he feels more lost than ever. Lio is in love with Craig but Craig isn't over his ex-boyfriend Cody, who lives out of state. 

Words fall short when I try to describe this book. It's the best feeling to get after finishing a book but not necessarily good when you try to write a review about it. I'll give it a shot anyway because this book is too good not to read.

For me reading is mostly about feeling. Some books resonate with you and others don't. What I loved about this book that it perfectly captures the feeling of being in love, not just love but unrequited love. The wanting that turns to aching because you want to be with somebody so badly that it hurts. To want to touch, to completely inhibit that person. Yes, I could relate very well :) 

Written from two first person POVs, you get to know the thoughts of Craig as well as Lio. Their problems are very complicated and I think Moskowitz showed other people's motivations really well. Nobody is just the bad guy, there is a reason that's usually from misunderstanding. You see Craig and Lio slowly growing to each other and it's a beautiful thing to witness.

Since I'm still young and I can barely remember 9/11 -also I'm not American- this gave me a whole new insight to the aftereffects. Over the years I've learned more about it but I will never really understand how it changed America. This book portrays the fear and the confusion very well. I didn't know about the shootings in D.C. and I can't imagine how it must have felt. It's not an easy subject to tackle but I think Moskowitz did it both respectfully and honest. 

The characters are believable and it never feels forced. A new classic that will stay with you for a long time.

Short

Moskowitz writes an earnest and understated story of two lost boys on a journey to find what they need and get what they want. 

I'd never read any books by Hannah Moskowitz before but now I'm certainly reading the rest of her books. 

Review of Overprotected by Jennifer Laurens

 
 Ashlyn:A lonely society princess living in NewYork City.

Daddy hired you to be my bodyguard.

Colin: Childhood enemy, now her protector.

Daddy thought I’d be safe. He thought I’d never fall in love. He thought he could keep me forever.

Charles: obsessed with keeping her safe, keeping her his, he hires the one person he knows she could never fall in love with: Colin.

Daddy was wrong.

(Blurb from Goodreads)



 What's it About?

Ashlyn is a seventeen year old girl who has been protected by a bodyguard from age 5 after her nanny had kidnapped her. The nanny was in love with the father and wanted them to be together with Ashlyn. Since then then her high powered lawyer father has made sure his little Princess was kept safe from everybody. They moved from California to New York and Aslyn's every step is monitored, literally. This has led to a lot of resentment between the two and Ashlyn craves freedom. After her last bodyguard is fired because he fell in love with her. Her Dad decides to hire her childhood nemesis Colin Brennen whom she hates. But after they meet again after 10 years, her feelings start to change...

Review (Some spoilers ahead!)
I'm so happy this was free on kindle so I haven't actually wasted money on this. The premise seemed fun, I love high society insight because the people who live that life fascinate me. But instead I spend half of this book wanting to punch Ashlyn in the face and cringing over the shallow characters. 

The beginning was alright. Ashlyn seemed like an ordinary girl, she goes to school, has fun with her best friend and adores playing the piano. Except her bodyguard Stuart, who does not behave like a bodyguard to me. He's in love with Ashlyn -which she knows- and seems disinterested from the whole body protecting part of bodyguarding. After she gets away from him -he seemed like a lousy bodyguard in the first place- because she wanted freedom, he doesn't tell her father. She tells her dad herself and he fires Stuart. The father is very overprotective but besides calling his daughter princess a lot there wasn't a bond between them. She wants to please him but he doesn't pay much attention to her and doesn't see her as a person, more as a child. Her father hires Colin Brennen as her new bodyguard, who bullied her when she was a child. She can't stand him and her father knows that. To me it seems that when you hire a bodyguard the one that needs protecting must trust said bodyguard. So that was the first thing that felt off to me. If you can't trust and respect your bodyguard will you listen to him when it counts? Secondly, the reason her father hires Colin is because he hates him and because Colin wants to work for the FBI when he's done studying (he's 21 now).
WTF! You want your daughter to be safe and you arrange such crappy security??? To me it felt like the whole bodyguard thing was just a plot device to set up the romance. An excuse for them to be close to each other, fall in love yadadada.

From the moment she looks at Colin she is overcome by lust and it never goes away. The entire story she is talking about how hot he is and I felt I never really got to know him. He had an ordinary childhood, is sorry for bullying Ashlyn and now wants to work for the FBI. I have no idea why he even likes her because she acts like a spoiled brat most of the time. She acts out and then regrets it because now Colin will think she's immature. But this cycle continues the entire book and she doesn't learn from her mistakes. They never really have conversations with each other either.

What also bothered me was the best friend, Felicity. She existed solely to react to Ashlyn and never becomes a fully developed character with a life of her own. Felicity's "teenage speak" (OMG!, seriously, no way!) felt forced and the jokes fell flat.

Problematic in this book was the portrayel of other girls at her school. Besides Felicity she has no friends (because her father does not deem them appropriate) and the mean girls who dislike her because Colin is hot are being described as skeletals who never eat and that's why they look like models. Felicty is a little bit fat but as Ashlyn tells us: you should look further than what people look like... What do you want to tell me??? This is complete bullshit. I don't get why that link is contantly made between fat - is nice- and skinny -is bitch-.

I can go on and on how the characters aren't consistent, the suspense was laughable, the stupid decisions Ashlyn made, and how the central relationship wasn't founded on anything beyond the superficial. It was confusing overall and I'm not planning to waste more time on it.

Quotes I hated


“Danicka asked where you were. I told her you and Colin were taking a long lunch eating- something she and her friends might want to take up since -clearly- Colin is a man, and men like meat, dogs like bones.” 


"Being domestic for Colin felt amazingly good. I had a ridiculous fantasy of myself, donned in a flirty apron, making him meals-as his wife."


WTF..!


"Pressed into the cushion, I felt like a delicate eggshell on a downy pillow."


Yes I think that too everytime I sit on a pillow....


In Short


It could have been an interesting story but bad characters and mediocre storytelling made this one sink. Don't even get me started on some of the subliminal messages it was sending.

1,5  stars

Introduction: Why I Review

I've been toying with the idea to start a book blog for awhile now. Reading used to be something I did for myself, especially when I was younger. I was an avid reader -still am!- when I was and I've spend countless hours under the covers of my bed escaping to another world.  
But the internet and Goodreads made all the difference. After discovering many fantastic books and watching the awesome YA community from a distance, I wanted to be part of it. School is boring me to death and starting this blog is a good challenge for me. My English isn’t great but I hope to improve that too. My goal is to write honest reviews that give a good inside in my likes and dislikes of the book. And that that will be useful when you're trying to decide what your next great read will be.
Reading is one of the best things in the world. Because I’m known by most people as a bookworm, non-readers often ask me what’s so great about books. And that question is hard to answer because it’s so personal. Reading is a part of me. And without it… I don’t know what I’d be.   It's like trying to describe why chocolate tastes so good or the bond you have with your best friends, going to Rome, the most beautiful city in the world, indescribable. <3   So welcome to my blog, and happy reading!

Credit picture: http://www.etsy.com/listing/35586778/books-print

Review of Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

This is one of those books you keep returning to like an old friend. I've re-read Saving Francesca countless times and I hope this review won't turn into an all round Melina Marchetta adoration fest (I'll save that for later when you've been properly seduced by my tragic English).

What it's about: 
Saving Francesca is about a 16-year old girl who fights all the time with her mom, Mia. Her mom is a communications lecturer at the university and challenges her family daily, much to Francesca's annoyance. She wishes that her mother would just let her be and not constantly tell her who she is. She hates the co-ed school, St. Sebastian, her mother picked out and describes it as follows.

"St. Sebastian's pretends it's co-ed by giving us our own toilet. The rest of the place is all male and I know what you're thinking if you're a girl. What a dream come true, right? Seven hundred and fifty boys and thirty girls? But the reality is that it's either like living in a fishbowl or like you don't exist."


Since going to the new school she hasn't made any new friends and misses her old ones. One of the girls, Tara Finke, who is an ultra feminist and activist tries to make a change and forces Francesca to make the girls' case to the House leader, William Trombal. Will is a smug strait-laced A-student with big ambitions who happens to look really interesting.

But then her mother doesn't come out of her bed one morning. Francesca doesn't know what to do and her father pretends there's nothing wrong. She doesn't know what to do and feels lost. Will Francesca be able to save herself?

Review:

What I love about this book are the characters. They feel so as if though they really exist. Even the secondary ones are well drawn and Marchetta never resorts to stereo types. They all have their own problems and are far from perfect but that's what makes them real. The central theme is family and the importance of having people who care about you. Mia is essential and without her the entire family is in crisis. While Francesca and her mother fight a lot you also feel how much they love each other and how close their bond is. In the course of the book she slowly starts opening up to the people around her and starts making friends with the people she previously put in a box and made fun of. They seem like real friends who are even there during the good and the bad times. They are relatable and fun. Did I mention that? This book is very funny. Francesca's sarcastic and makes really funny observations of the people around her. Her love interest isn't perfect either and while he makes bad choices, you really feel for him (although sometimes you want to smack him for being slightly clueless). In the end this book just feels exactly right and I hope you'll love her too. I think Marchetta puts the bar for Young-Adult writers very high and Saving Francesca is a prime example of that.


Short:
You should read this book because it's honest, funny, sometimes painful. In the end it's all about love and the family that binds us together.

5 stars!

Favourite quotes:

 "I think we're made up of all these different pieces and every time someone goes, you're left with less of yourself.” 


“Comfort zones are overrated. They make you lazy.” 

“Memory is a funny thing. It tricks you into believing that you've forgotten important moments, and then when you're raking your brain for a bit of information that might make sens of something else, it taps you on the head an says, "Remember when you told me to put that memory in the green rubbish bin? Well, I didn't, I put it in the black recycling tub, and it's coming your way again.” 

This made my week

After blackmailing my mother, she let me borrow her credit card to buy a book (or two ;).

Hours of consideration later I finally decided on these two.

Sloppy Firsts is one of my favorite books of all time. It’s like McCafferty can read my mind. Highest possible recommendation!

And this just came out. I’ve never read any of her books but Hannah Moskowitz’s blogposts are great. 

A lot of awesome reviewers at Goodreads recommended this. So I can’t wait!

I love the cover. “Sometimes you have a great tag line. Sometimes you don’t”

Blurb on goodreads:

It’s a year after 9/11. Sniper shootings throughout the D.C. area have everyone on edge and trying to make sense of these random acts of violence. Meanwhile, Craig and Lio are just trying to make sense of their lives. Craig’s crushing on quiet, distant Lio, and preoccupied with what it meant when Lio kissed him…and if he’ll do it again…and if kissing Lio will help him finally get over his ex-boyfriend, Cody.Lio feels most alive when he’s with Craig. He forgets about his broken family, his dead brother, and the messed up world. But being with Craig means being vulnerable…and Lio will have to decide whether love is worth the risk.

If everything goes alright they’ll be delivered next week ^^