Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Anna and the French Kiss
by Stephanie Perkins
Date Released: December 2, 2010
Pages: 372

Summary:

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.

As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss Anna - and readers - have long awaited

My Review:

Let me just start by apologizing for being MIA for two weeks I think it was. There was one week where I literally read two chapters, but I'm back now. Moving on to the actual review. This book was awesome. If you recall from my last review, I mentioned that I'm not normally one to read contemporary or realistic fiction, and very rarely to I find ones that I really love. Well, let me tell you. I found one. This book was so amazing! There was so much that I loved about it. The characters, the plot, and especially the writing style.

I'm going to start with the characters. Out of all the books I've read, Anna was probably one of the most well written character I've come across. She was very easy to relate to, and the author really got inside her mind in a way that made me stop and think, Hey, I have totally had thoughts like that before. And she just seemed so real when I was reading it. Another great character was St. Clair. I found myself developing a crush on St. Clair. Which truthfully, isn't very uncommon when I read books. I find book crushes in pretty much every single book I read. But, St. Claire was probably one of my favorite. He was attractive, well I couldn't see him but he certainly sounded attractive, especially with that accent. His personality is one that is so hard to find in any actual real guys, but it's the one every one wants to find. He was funny, loved his mom, and wasn't a stuck up jerk.

The plot was also excellently written. I didn't feel like it was cliche at all. The author did a great job of adding things that many wouldn't have thought to add, or would have wanted to add. Like St. Clair's mom getting cancer, that one really threw me for a loop. The plot overall was very believable, and not a plot that "only happens in books or movies."

The author's writing style was also phenomenal. The dialogue, Anna's thoughts, her reactions to things. Just everything about it was awesome. Stephanie Perkins is probably one of the best authors I have ever read.

Now is the time where normally I would talk about the things I didn't like about the book, but there is literally nothing. I loved everything about it.

My Rating:

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

An Abundance of Katherines
by John Green
Date Released: September 21, 2006
Pages: 227

Summary:

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.

On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself by Printz medalist John Green, acclaimed author of Looking for Alaska.

My Review:

So I know those of you who are big John Green fangirls are going to kill me for saying this, but I wasn't crazy about this book. There were things I did like about it, don't get me wrong. But there were also a couple things I didn't like about it.

One thing about it was it just didn't really hook me at any point when I was reading it. Normally when I read a book the story will have hooked me to the point where I will make time to read it. Whether that point comes in chapter two or half way through, it doesn't matter. But I just didn't find that in this story. I mean I guess overall the story was good, it just didn't bring the reader in as much as I would have liked.

I also didn't like the character of Hassan very much. I think I finally started to warm up to him by the very end of the book, and had this been a series book I probably would have started liking him as the series went on. One thing that turned me off from him was how a lot of the things he said were very crude. And while my tolerance level for that kind of thing is very high when I'm hearing it in person, but for some reason that tolerance level shoots way down for books, so it just wasn't flying for me.

I also found the only three characters I really liked were Hollis, Lindsey, and Colin (not TOC, I hated him, but Colin Singleton). But this ties into the things I did like about it. I liked those three characters. My favorite was by far Lindsey though. I liked her immediately after she was introduced. Colin took a couple of chapters of warming up to. Same with Hollis. But I ended up liking them both.

Another thing that John Green did really well was the dialogue. Especially in the last chapter or so when Lindsey and Colin are talking. I was really impressed with the way that the author showed that they kissed without telling us. The way he had the four lines of ellipses and some dialogue and the reader had to figure it out.

If you are a big fan of contemporary or realistic fiction, then this book is probably for you. But in my case I'm more of a fantasy/dystopian/sci-fi reader who occasionally dives into the world of contemp fiction. If you're like me, then I would advise steering clear of this book.

My Rating:

A Million Suns by Beth Revis

A Million Suns
by Beth Revis
Date Released: January 10, 2012
Pages: 386

Summary:

Godspeed was fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos.

It's been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. And everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to enact his vision - no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder discovers shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, unable to fight the romance that's growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart.

In book two of the Across the Universe trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis mesmerizes us again with a brilliantly crafted mystery filled with action, suspense, romance, and deep philosophical questions. And this time it all builds to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship.

My Review:

This book really lived up to my expectations. I find it hard to find a sequel that is really on par or better than the original, but this one definitely was. I loved pretty much everything about it. Probably the only thing that could have been written a little better was the way Amy solved the clues that Orion left her. I liked how he left clues and the things she found out, but I felt like the author made it sound too much like a scavenger hunt that a little kid might do. I wasn't opposed to the fact of her solving a clue then finding the next and so on until we got to the big twist at the end of the book, but the way she presented it sounded a littler younger than Amy.

Other than this, I loved everything in this book.

One thing I liked was the way Amy was reserved about loving Elder because he was her only "option." In many other books I have read the girl would have been all over the guy because of her feelings, but Amy was hesitant. She wasn't sure whether what she was feeling was real, or if the feelings were produced because of the fact that Elder was the only person on the ship her age. This made me feel like she was more than just another whiny girl protagonist. It gave the character more depth, and it added a certain element of suspense to the romance. This is also a contributing factor to make Amy a more well developed character than many of the main characters of books are.

Another thing the author did that I felt was against what many others would have done was have the people resistant to Elder becoming the new leader. It could have been just so tempting as an author to make the people automatically bow down and obey Elder's every command. It certainly would have been easier to write a bunch of perfect law abiding citizens, but it wouldn't have been nearly as realistic. Going along with this is also many of the citizens of Godspeed's disgust at Amy. This, along with their reluctance to obey, in my opinion added to the citizens. I feel like we learned a lot more about them as a whole in this book than we did in the first one, and I liked it.

A third contributing factor of my love for this book was the excellent plot twist at the end of the novel. Whenever I read a book it is very rare for me to spot someone early on as being a traitor. I am almost always shocked to find out who the bad guy is. This book went right along with that. Some people don't understand how I don't pick up on the little hints here and there of someone's deception, but I think this makes reading the book that much more exciting. So not being able to figure out who the traitor is always a good sign for me. And let me tell you, I was in no way expecting Doc to be plotting against Elder. That really shocked me and left me wanting more and anxious for the third book to come out next year.

This book was a great read and if you are a fan of sci-fi or dystopian I highly recommend reading both this book and the first one.

My Rating:

Wrapping Up 2011 Readathon

So this post should have been up days ago, but as I said I was without computer for about 2 weeks I guess it was. So here is my final results of the readathon:

My goal was to read 5 books:
- Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
- All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin
- Crossed by Ally Condie
- Beautiful Creatures by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia
- Ingenue by Jillian Larkin

Results:
I read 5 books (and I would have included the pictures, but my computer is being mean and won't let me upload more than one picture):
- Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
- Crossed by Ally Condie
- Beautiful Creatures by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia
- Ingenue by Jilliam Larkin
- Maximum Ride Manga Novel Volume 5

I did get around to reading All These Things I've Done, but after the new year. It was a great book and I highly recommend it.

I'm Back!

Sorry for the time away, my computer died and so I was without a computer for a week or so. But, now I have a new computer and I can post again! Yay!