Little Women and Me

Little Women and Me
Lauren Baratz-Logsted
336 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Source: The publisher via NetGalley
★★☆☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

I read Little Women in 2010 and loved it.  It was the first time I'd read the classic in full (i.e.: not an abridged version for children) and I doubt it will be the last time.  So when I saw there was a YA novel coming out about Little Women, I jumped at the chance to read it.

The story starts out with Emily receiving an English assignment at school: pick your favorite book and talk about the things you would change about it.  Emily chooses Little Women, deciding that Jo needs to end up with Laurie and Beth needs to live.  But as she starts writing her assignment, she is sucked into the actual book as the fifth March sister!  How on earth will she get out?

I regret to say that I didn't like this book that much.  I was enjoying it right up to the point of the story where Emily is sucked into the story.  It went downhill for me from there.  My beef is mainly with the character of Emily- when she arrives in the 1860s she has no regard for the past.  She introduces her modern slang to the characters and is constantly whining to herself about how different the time period was.  Her teenage mannerisms were very over the top and detracted from what might have been a good plot.  I also didn't care for the fact that Emily refers to her adventure as "time travel."  I don't think it qualifies as time travel when you are traveling to a fictional place.

What I did like was that the character of Emily grew as a person throughout the novel.  It was refreshing to see, despite the fact that her mannerisms remained over the top.

I don't want to spoil the book's ending, so I will just say this: I especially didn't like the last chapter's revelations, nor did I care for the epilogue.  Reading the "Author's Note" at the end of the novel really helped me get a better grasp on what Baratz-Logstead was trying to do with the novel, but without that explanation I really would not enjoyed this book that much more.  The reader shouldn't have to rely on the "Author's Note" to understand the book.

The book has merits and I do think there are readers out there who would really enjoy it; it just wasn't for me.  The book is out today if you're interested.

Fading Into Magic

Fading Into Magic
Vone Savan
276 pages
Publisher: Savan Publishing
Source: the author
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

When Madeline visits the mysterious Madame Anca, a fortune teller at a local fair, she learns that she will soon fall in love with a handsome, dark-haired, pale boy.  Sure enough, the new student in town looks exactly as Madame Anca described.  Things start to get complicated after they start falling in love - Stefan knows magic and has a lot of family secrets to go along.

This book sounded really interesting to me and I was glad to receive it.  After reading it and mulling it over for a bit, though, I feel like it had a lot of plusses and minuses for me.

The Good:  The plot had dimensions.  Madeline wasn't just dealing Stefan and his nonsense, but she was also dealing with a distant and alcoholic father, as well as friends who felt abandoned by her.  Madeline had a lot on her plate.  Also, the concept for the book on a whole was great.  I liked how Madame Anca showed up later in the book (don't want to ruin it!) and how Stefan's sister was a crazy bitch who had more up her sleeve than I originally thought.

The Bad: I felt like the plot was rushed.  The chapters didn't really accomplish much on their own, but together they moved the plot too quickly.  I also had a problem with the dialogue: sometimes I felt like the high school characters sounded younger than they were supposed to be and dialogue often felt forced.

Overall, it was fast, good read.  If you're one of those YA readers who is into magical plot lines, then I think you would really enjoy this book.

PS: I would like to thank the author for sending me this signed copy of his book.  Even though I received the book for free, that didn't affect my review.

Cheesy Romance Monday (2)

The Doctor's Family
Lenora Worth
Subgenre: Inspirational
Goodreads link

Soooo, I really liked this book.  I really love romances where the hero is a doctor and that's probably why I married one (well, amongst other reasons.)  There were all kinds of positive things going on in this book:

• The hero, Jonathan, was a doctor!  There's nothing sexier than saving a life.
• The heroine, Arabella, had three adorable daughters.  Just adorable.
• There was some real plot and mystery behind the main plot line of the romance.  Who is Macy's real father?  She bears an uncanny resemblance to the triplets!  Dun dun dun...
• The "inspirational" aspect of this novel was not overpowering at all and added to the plot nicely.  It was certainly not preachy, which I enjoyed. 

In My Mailbox (8)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

FOR REVIEW:

Feyland by Anthea Sharp (review coming December 15th)

Nightingale by David Farland - it's an enhanced ebook with a soundtrack

FROM THE LIBRARY:

Hourglass by Myra McEntire

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Amiee Bender

Gideon's Gift by Karen Kingsbury

Curiosity Thrilled the Cat by Sofie Kelly

Current TBR: 121

The Book Thief

The Book Thief
Markus Zusak
550 pages
Publisher: Knopf
Source: paperbackswap.com
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

At the beginning of World War II in Germany, nine year old Liesel is whisked away to foster care by her mother.  She quickly fits in with her new Mama and Papa and the war really gets underway.  When a book burning occurs to commemorate Hitler's birthday, Liesel steals a book from the bonfire and starts her careers as The Book Thief.

I enjoyed the way the story is told.  I thought the point of view (I don't want to ruin it by telling you who is telling the story) was very unique.  In several cases the narrator tells the reader straight-up what's going to happen, but that kind of extreme foreshadowing really worked in this book.

This book held so many emotions.  Since it's a book about WWII in Germany, and thus the Holocaust, it was extremely depressing and disheartening to read at points, but there were also parts that made me smile and one part in particular that made me happy.

It's times like this I wish I did half stars, because three and a half seems more appropriate to me than a plain three or four.  So I'll round up just because it's so popular.  If you're even remotely interesting in the war or the Holocaust, I think you would enjoy this book.

Darker Still

Darker Still
Leanna Renee Hieber
320 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Source: NetGalley
★★★★★

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

It's 1880 in New York City and a famous painting has just arrived and is the talk of the town - a painting of a young man, Lord Denbury, who is suspected to have drowned in England.  Yet there is something so lifelike about the painting.  When mute Natalie sees the painting she's immediately drawn to it and when she notices the details in the painting are changing she knows something is up.  Denbury's soul is trapped in the painting and he wants Natalie specifically to save him.

It hit me within the first three pages - Darker Still is a beautiful novel.  It gives off an air of sophistication, it's written so well with such great language.  In addition to that, I thought the formatting of the book was brilliant.  The book starts with missing person case notes and continues on with the diary of Natalie, submitted as evidence in the case.  I loved reading the story through Natalie's diary entries - it really helped the story be personal.  Of course, the ending case notes were just as charming.

Charming.  That's a really great word to describe the book as a whole.

I particularly enjoyed the spiritualism aspect of the book.  The spiritualist movement in the United States has always fascinated me.  The history throughout the book was so interesting and I can't think of a better time period for the book to have taken place.  I think if it took place today, it would have been really cheesy.

Of course, the character of Jonathan was one of the best parts of the book.  A gentleman through and through and at the same time gorgeous and just, well, dreamy.  He was a classy guy, yet at the same time the chemistry between Natalie and him was palpable.

Darker Still is out today.  Five stars!  An amazing book with a gorgeous cover to match.  Add it to your Christmas wishlist right now, or go out and get a copy.  I'm not kidding.  What a lovely piece of literature.  I'll be checking out any future sequels for sure.

October Recap

Another month over!  Thankfully I had a better reading month in October than I had in September and finished twenty-three books.  So without further ado, here's the list of what I read this month, whether it got reviewed here or not:

The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

The Blood Lie by Shirley Reeve Vernick

Blood Drive by Traci Houston

Death by the Dozen by Jenn McKinlay

The Shadow Reader by Sandy Williams

Deadly Choices: How the Anit-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All by Paul Offit

A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis by Irene Woodbury

Happy Birthday to Me by Brian Rowe

Happy Birthday to Me Again by Brian Rowe

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater

Haunted on Bourbon Street by Deanna Chase

Saving June by Hannah Harrington

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

The Reckoning by Beverly Lewis

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Bewitching Kittens by Janice Bennett

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

YTD books: 217

YTD pages: 71,372