Reading Challenge: Book Reviews

Hello lovelies!

This is your space for you to blog a book review for your Reading Challenge. Remember in a review you should not just repeat the plot summary but give a clear and developed opinion on various aspects of the novel.

Enjoy!

Miss G

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

POINT BLANC by ANTHONY HOROWITZ



This book is the second version of Alex Rider. This book is about Alex Rider who is being contacted by the M16 for another mission, after the stormbreaker. This one is tougher and more dangerous. There have been two incidents with two rich people and their sons are in the same hostel called POINT BLANC. So the M16 think that is the same person behind both the cases. So they send in Alex, but to do so he has to be from a rich family, so he stays in a new home for a week and learns more about his new family and POINT BLANC. Then he reaches the hostel. He meets people, investigates stuffs and then realises that the head of the school are making duplicates of the students that learn there, with his thoughts and thinkings so that they grow up and take over the country. He finds this out and escapes with some injuries. Then with the help of M16 he goes with them and rescues the students and they capture the replicas. Then he is being caled by the principal of his school for a meeting. He finds out that it was not the principal but it was his own replica whom the M16 had not captured and was now going to kill the real Alex, but Alex was lucky to get a chance to kill his replica and save himself. So again another mission accomplished.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

STORMBREAKER by Anthony Horowitz



The book STORMBREAKER is the first edition of Alex Rider. It is like a younger version of James Bond. It is about young 14 year old boy who lives with his uncle and a care taker because his parents had died when he was very young. His uncle lies to him that he works for a bank instead he is a spy. He was on a mission and was killed while he was coming back. Alex is informed by the head of his uncle that he died in an accident as he was not wearing a seat belt. Alex got suspicious because his uncle was a very careful man. He started to investigate. Then the head found Alex and told him the truth. Herod Sayle was giving out a new kind of computer called the STORMBREAKER to everperson in UK. And these people got suspicious and send Alex in to find more about it after his uncle had died. He went there and found that there was a virus put into the computer called smallpox. Herod Sayle was doing this to take revenge on his childhood enemy, who was now the Prime Minister. It was the time when the STORMBREAKERS were going to be given out. It was just a button away. The Prime Minister was going to press the button when Alex jumped off the plane and came into the museum from the roof and destroyed the button and hit Herod Sayle. It hits him and then he fleds away. Alex saves a lot of people's lives. While Alex was returning home to his surprise he finds out that the cab driver is Herod Sayle. He takes him to a building top and was going to kill him when Yassen Gregorovich killed Sayle. IT IS AWESOME AND COOL.

Monday, April 25, 2011

A to Z Mysteries "The lucky lottery"


The book A to Z mysteries is filled with awesome adventure! This book is all about 3 kids (Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose) that have a urge to decipher the truth behind the mysteries. These kids are up for any challenge, they even have a dog to help them find the clues.

This particular story is about their cousin “lucky O’Leary” who has never been lucky – until one day when his grandfather sends him a lottery ticket that turns out to be a 7 million dollar price but before he can claim it, the ticket gets stolen!

Now it is up to Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose to track it down. Will they be able to?

Masquerade


Hi,

This book is a series to the "Blue Bloods" Novel. Another exciting horror book filled with dangers, lies and secrets to uncover. Schyler, Mimi and some other girls who possess blue blood and have started to discover massive changes. Mimi and her brother are cousins to Schyler but Mimi hates her. Blue bloods are said to re-born after they complete a cycle but not unless they are drained out of blood. There are massive balls, dazzling dresses, jealousy and love packed in one series.

It's all up to Schyler adn Mimi's brother to stop the devils hunting for blue bloods, what people thought have vanished forever after the WWII (blue bloods WWII) She has to find her grandfather, after the death of her grandmother to seek his help as he tend to had done alot of research in his passed cycles.

Well.. the book was very interesting and In m looking forward to reading "Revelations", third in the series. Sadly someone has borrowed it for weeks and is out of the library.

I wouls recommend you to read this book id you enjoy horror and a bit of romance though I don't preffer recommending books tou people because all of us have different opinions.

I think that in the end of this book, Mimi and Schyler will become freinds as Schyler ahs inherited a history thing that they can see past images when they suck blood. The only one was her mother who has been in coma for a long time. Mimi had been given a big favour by Schyler as she would have been burnt up alive for summoning demons, which actually wasn't her fault but another boys fault who persuaded her to help him so that her traces are left, not his.


Bye and enjoy reading your book...... :P





Bloodline- The story is about a thief who stole a bunch of cash. She held a family hostage while trying to escape from the police. She needed to escape from the police so she decided to negotiate a deal with them : they get 1/3 of the money if she successfully escapes. I dont really like the story that much because the plot feels like it has been used too many times already and it gets boring afterwards. The title has nothing to do with the book, it feels like the writer has ran out of time to think of a name or is too lazy to do it so he just decided to throw a random one in. Overall, i dont really like this book.

The demons lexicon

This is a very interesting book with a horror genre. The two main characters are Nick and his brother Alan. This book is unlike other books which mostly has vampires, instead there are demons who have been chasing the boys for a long time tor retrieve a stollen charm. According to the text, the charm was 5000 years and old and Nick's mother stole it when she used to work for the magician, Arthur. The demons could come in any form and would do anything to come into the Earth. If they give you the three tier you are bound to die and there's no way any one coulds save. Alan and Nick had been fighting a demon in form of a snake when Alan got bitten. To get rid of it, the boys seek help of the "Goblin market", filled with magical wonders and secrets.
In my opinion the book is very adventorous and packed with magic though I am curious what will happen to Jaime who has recieved the third tier mark.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Evermore by Alyson Noël


Evermore by Alyson Noel is the first book of 'The Immortals'.

Ever Bloom is a sixteen year old who's life is completely messed up. She's the only survivor of her family car crash which is a miracle since her parents, dog and her only young twelve year old sister died but she didn't. She's transferred from Oregon to California where her aunt, Sabine, lives. She's enrolling a high school in sunny Cali, she already made 2 best friends, Haven and Miles(gay). She tries to blend in but she has the ability to see people's auras, hear their thoughts, know their entire life story just by touching them. It gets weirder because she's also haunted by her little sister, Riley. However, when a handsome irresistible new guy arrives at her school, she fell in love with him. Damen is stunning, perfect and smart, how can she not love? Though, she doesn't know his entire life story since she couldn't see his aura or hear his thoughts. That's just the cover story, Damen is much more than a popular beautiful guy, he's not what everyone thinks he is. So, who is he?
Ever tries to find out as gorgeous Damen kept falling for her but pushes her way as well, when she found out Damen was immortal. That was when the story gets more complicated. She's terrified because Damen was the one who saved her from the dead, no, he brought her. What's even weirder is that Damen has been her love life the whole time... She was reincarnated, what that means is that she reborn every time she dies or killed by Damen's former wife(Drina). Though now it's different, Ever became an immortal when Damen saved her because Damen just can't seem to get away from her and she can't do that too.

I like this book though some parts really bored me but overall, I like it. I love the stories and how pieces of Damen and Ever's story is coming together in each chapter. Some parts of their love story is really intense especially the ending where Damen couldn't take it anymore and spilled everything to Ever, about she's his love life and who/what he is. This is obviously a romance story with a little bit of action of fighting for love. I especially thought that it was really romantic(and i didn't know) that Damen would leave a red tulip every time he and Ever met, because the red tulips actually has it's meanings which is undying love.

Flawless (Pretty Little Liars Series (2nd Book) - Sara Shepard


Flawless is a lot more dramatic than Pretty Little Liars because A who has been only scaring the girls in the first book is now threatening them.

Aria's father has started seeing another woman, Meredith, again and only Aria knows. A sent a message to Aria saying that if she didn't fix things soon (as in tell her mother) she would take over. Aria forgot so one day when she came home her mother was sitting at the kitchen table crying because she had received an anonymous letter from someone telling her about Meredith and when she confronted Aria's father he had stormed out. So it must have been A.

When Alison was still alive there was a guy called Toby Cavanaugh (not sure about spelling) that was kind of creepy and stalked the girls. So one night Alison decides to pull a prank on him by setting a firework just to scare him but the plan goes wrong and it hits his treehouse where him and his step-sister Jenna are. Jenna gets blinded and Toby says he saw Alison do it but she threatened to tell his secret (he had done something to Jenna before Alison lit the firework and she had seen). So the next day he confessed to doing it and Jenna left to go to a school for blind and Toby left as well to some other school for a while. Before Toby left he said something along the lines of I'm going to get you Alison.

When they found Alison's body the case had been changed from missing person to a murder and the 4 girls think that Toby was the one that killed her.

When the girls see Jenna and Toby at Alison's funeral and back in school too.
They suspect that Toby was also A but they haven't got any proof. And when Hanna talks to the police telling them that she suspects that he did it she finds out that the night that Alison went missing he had an alibi and later in the book you find out he's not a very bad guy.

Emily confronts Toby and says that she knew what he did (by this she meant she knew that he had killed Alison). Toby thinking that she meant she knew what he'd done to Jenna that night tried to explain and said he never meant to hurt Jenna and he ran into the woods extremely upset. The next day his body was found in the woods dead because he had OD'ed (overdosed with drugs).

And turns out after Toby's death the girls have still been receiving messages from A so A is definitely not Toby...

What draws me to this book the most is the huge variety of genres. You can't really put this book into a category (except maybe that's it's kind of a girl's book other than that) it's a mixture of drama, comedy, thriller, adventure and more. At the end of each book the reader gets a message from A kind of summarizing the book. At the end of Flawless A says something like: Did you seriously think I was Toby? and then she goes on about a few other things. What I like about these endings is that she is addressing you as the reader and giving you hints on who she is. But you can never really figure it out.

I just got books 5 to 8 of Pretty Little Liars! Can't wait to read them :D But I'm taking a short break from this series and reading this other book from this massive series I was reading last year (kind of cliquey) about this group of girls as well -not as dramatic though.
Stay tuned :P :P

Love Evita
xx

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead


Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead is the 6th book of her series 'Vampire Academy'.

When you hear 'Vampire', you would think "Oh, that book's silly, it's like Twilight, all sparkly vampires that stalks a human girl..." Though you're wrong, this book is NOTHING like Twilight. Literally.
There're 3 types of vampire: Moroi(good), Dhampirs(half human, half vampire) and lastly, Strigoi(evil ones, you DON'T want to mess with them). Dhampirs are offsprings of Moroi and another Dhampir, usually Dhampirs are guardians, protectors of Moroi because Strigoi(evil), just loves to drink Moroi blood because it makes Strigoi stronger. Dhampirs have to protect Moroi because they need Moroi to survive for future generations etc.
Anyways, Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir and she's a shadow kissed(brought from the dead) guardian of Lissa Dragonmir, her best friend. However, in this book, Rose was accused of a Queen Vampire murder that she didn't do. Her life time is getting shorter and shorter each day so her friends who think that she's innocent helped her escape from her prison. She's on a journey with her former teacher and lover(until she got rejected), Dimitri, though Dimitri was a Strigoi before(got bitten) but now he's back to his former self after Lissa healed him.(evaluate? read the book.)
Rose is confused because now her best friend, Lissa is running for an election for the new ruler to kill time and she was on her journey with someone she dated(kinda). On their journey, they still love each other but can't because Rose would be cheating on her current boyfriend, Adrian. Things are getting complicated. Rejection, love, death, runaway, anxiety, confusion are all smacking back at Rose. Will Rose clear her name? Can she ever love Dimitri again? How can she run away when there're people(dhampirs) are chasing her? Well, read the book(series) to find out!

I really liked this book because of it's genre which is adventure, suspense, horrow added with romance together. My favourite character is Rose because she's the narrator and also she's very protective of her friend, Lissa. Sure she's brutal and violent and all but the author described her as soft hearted as well. I really loved this book but sadly, it's the last of this series...

Friday, March 4, 2011

the short second life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer


the short second life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer is an eclipse novella(sequel to eclipse in 'Twilight Saga')

Bree Tanner isn't an ordinary girl, well, she isn't now. Bree was just an ordinary fifteen year old girl except her life was ruined because she got a quite unlucky family so she ran off. She was really hungry and out of money when he(Riley) came and brought Bree to her so she can change Bree. Until that day, Bree Tanner was no longer herself, she was something different... She met a special guy, Diego and they really liked each other even though they only met for 2 days but still, time was limited for Bree and her kind. All she knows that she has to hunt, live or die but she doesn't know that her time of immortality is running out fast. Diego and Bree together must find out the secrets about their creator also known as her. Later, they realised they were pawns for a game bigger than just an army, a fight with their own kind, but different.

I really liked this book because the adventure of Bree and Diego finding the truth to the lies they've been told. I especially liked Diego because he was a vampire but he still want to be good, he still want to trust, live and have a peaceful life. Unfortunately, Bree and Diego's stories ended in this book itself. Adventure, Suspense, Mystery mixed with a little bit of romance to create this book. Really liked it.

Halo: The Flood by William C. Dietz


The Flood is a great reccomendation for those who like thrillers and action. As the 'Pillar of Autumn' Discovers a historical Artifact drifting through space called the 'Halo'. Whilts staring at the artifact from a distance, a covenant Ship ambushes them, forcing the Pillar of Autumn to crashland on the Halo, unfortunately, their Captain (Keyes) was kidnapped on the ship. The covenant then seeks out to destroy the UNSC. Not knowing that the rescue for captain Keyes is a trap, the UNSC marines Seek a desperate mission to rescue their captain and soon after, the Master Chief Seeks to find the control centre as it was said to be a sort of weapon.

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl


This is the second book of the series 'The Caster Chronicles', the first book is 'Beautiful Creatures'. This book is about another adventure of a Mortal Boy with a Caster girl. (don't know what that is, go to 'Beautiful Creatures' post) Beautiful Darkness is just as amazing as Beautiful Creatures. Possibly more enduring maybe not.


Things are getting complicated. Lena claimed herself but now she's half Dark, half Light. One day she might be nice and next she might be evil. You'd never know. Though, Ethan Wate still love her with all his heart but the thing is, he's not what you seem. Ethan is still tangled in his relationship and Lena is pushing him away further and further because of the darkness inside her. In 'Beautiful Creatures', they both faced their obstacle - together. However now, Ethan is haunted by the visions he can only see and Lena is turning darker and darker each day. Their connection(they can talk to in each others' minds) are getting weaker and weaker. How complicated can it possibly get? Well, much much worse. Lena has the power to kill the dark side of her family or the light. Now she's kidnapped by her mom(read the book, you'll know why) but Ethan is still not giving up, he's the one who can save Lena and the only one she love.


Fantastic book of a life-ending story. I think this series gets better and better and i love this book because somehow, the authors are just like grabbing into the story every chapter. There are so many secrets that are hidden behind a plain ordinary town and you'll never know...

Just simply haunting. Love it. C:

Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul IV by Jack canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Kimberly Kirberger and Mitch Claspy

Book title: Chicken Soup for the teenage soul

Rating : 8/10

Genre: Romance, Heartbreak, just a good old heart warmind book.

Chicken soup for the Teenage soul is a very heartwarming book. It's full of amazing life stories about friendship and school life then read this book. I really enjoyed reading all of the stories my favourite one is SPF 1000 it is a very funny and interesting story about these two girls who are best friends and are about to go away for university. They both talked about past memories and ... READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT!! I really do recommend this book if you just want to read a heartwarming story.

Chicken soup is actually many stories combined and the stories are pretty short.

If you want to borrow it then you should look for it in the library. Although i think An is going to keep is for a while. :D

The Lost Hero By Rick Riordan

The Lost hero is one of the best books I have read. It is about these 3 demigods Jason, Piper and Leo who have been assigned the quest to stop Gaea and bring the roman camp and the Greek camp together after all the wars they have been through. They have to accomplish different problems ranging from battle zombies and avoiding getting killed by the gods. Every single one of the main character has secret, if you want to find out, read the book.

Wuithering Tights


Wuthering tights is a modern take on the classic novel wuthering heights. It dosent stick souly to the storyline of wuthering heights but the book does have things that relate back to it e.g. It is set in Yorkshire. It is very much a girls book and is highly funny and at moments cringey in a funny way! The main character, Talullah is going to performing arts school in Yorkshire. While she is there she meets new friends ... and boys! She also has to struggle to stay at the performing arts school. I would highly reccomend it if you want a light hearted funny read! Overall Tres Bien! :)

Crocodile Tears


This book is really interesting and has lots of suspense sometimes it decsribes it in alot of description and and sometimes the suspense kills you (metaphorically). The plot is really interesting but it goes of topic sometimes. I like this book alot because it is interesting and makes you read on (maybe it's just me because I really like thriller books). This book adds lots of characters as it goes on but you should read the previous books because sometimes characters from previous books come in to the story. The book is also action packed with adventure and it really thrilling. The guardian says this book is "Explosive, thrilling, action-packed".

Darkside


Darkside is a great book for blood thirsty boys. It is quite creepy-ish violent but tha's OK, because boys are not scared of anything. I really like this book because it has tons of cliff hanger, thousands of twists! So, generally, It's about one boy named Jonathan, he experiences the secret city called Darkside. It's full of criminals and meanies. He meets one werewolf called Carnegie. He is quite wild and grumpy, but he soon gets used to it cause he's nice. Then, he confronts one evil, rich guy called Baretta. He goes throuhg the trouble and finally, saves his dad from evil Baretta! This book inspired me to be like Jonathan and become fearless!

The Vampirates-Blach Heart

This is an extremely exciting book filled with action, horror, suspense and a little comedy. Black Heart is fourth in the series. The most interesting character I found was Lady Lola Lockwood, she's a Vampire aboard the ship 'The Vegabond' and has recently murdered a Professor from the Pirates Academy through one of her swirling skills. Her nick-name is Black Heart, unlike all the other Vampires she likes her deputy to get her the blood and pour it in a fancy wine glass and every evening she gets a blood bath.
On the other hand, after so many years of research the pirates have discovered that VAMPIRATES actually exists and their mission is to destroy every single one of them...led by Cheng Li. Amongst her crew is Jasmine, her freind and Connor. Connor has been having a hard time understanding why her sister is interested in the Vampirates and living amongst them. His sister, Grace has met her mothers soul and revealed the truth about their true identity. When she tries to tell this to her brother, he thinks that she's gone crazy.

WILL GRACE BE ABLE TO TELL CONNOR THAT THEY ARE DHAMPIRS? (half mortal,half vampire) and their father is Sidorio-king of the evil vampirates whose about to marry Lady Lola.
ARE THERE ANY MORE HIDDEN TRUTHS ABOUT THEIR LIVES?

the hunger games

After the civil war, the city of Pnem split into 12 districts, and a Capitol. to remind the people of Panem that even the strongests of rebels cannot overthrow the capitol, th hold the hunger games every year. 1 boy and 1 girl are randomly chosen to participate in the hunger games where they fight it out to the death in an arena, the event uis televised fo the capitols entertainment. Katniss everdeen from district 12 volunteered in her sister's place.also peeta mellark is chosen, he once saved Katnisses life when she was satrving and her father died. their mentor is haymitch abernathy who is drunk and hates life due to him winning the hunger games once. at the interview peeta conffesses his love for katniss.

this book is great, because it really keeps you reading. theres also much more to it than all the gore and deaths.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl


This book is about a mesmerising world from a perspective of a human boy meeting a Caster girl. Here's the plot:

Ethan Wate is just another guy who doesn't fit in, he hangs out with jocks and date popular girls but he can never figure why he always feel incomplete. Until a day when he dreamt about this girl, falling... dying in his arms till he realise. It's her. Ethan doesn't know who that girl was because he never even met her but when Lena Duchannes step through the school gates, then he knew his live is going to change forever. Lena isn't an ordinary 16 year old, she's a Caster girl, a girl from a family of a whole new world who casts magic. Spells. Powers. However, her family is cursed for eternity because of a forbidden spell was casts 3 generations ago... Ethan fell in love with her but he was just an ordinary simple guy but Lena is different. She's special. Every year on Lena's birthday when he turn sixteen, she will be chosen to be Dark or Light. Evil or Good. ater, Ethan and Lena both found out that Lena has to claim herself. She got the power to choose but there are consequences for her choice. She's been torn apart and only Ethan can save her. Though one thing was standing in their way: their forbidden love and they knew a Caster can't fall in love with a Mortal.

I fell in love with this book because the story and the characters are really interesting. I bought this book because the genre is Romance, Goth and Suspense. Exactly the genres I love. I was drawn into this captivating world. I particularly liked Ethan because of his love, he is still able to change and save Lena.
It's really an amazing book, i reccomend this book to girls(i don't think the guys would appreciate the story) but if you love, dark, haunting, gothic, tragic, romance, magic then this is the book for you. *this book is not from the library, but you can borrow from me if you like though 2 people already asked me...*

Pretty Little Liars - Sara Shepard


So about 2 weeks ago I finished reading this book and like straight after I picked up the next book called 'Flawless' which I'm reading atm (at the moment). Anyway this post is about the book 'Pretty Little Liars', so ... In this book each chapter switches between the points of views of these 4 girls: Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily.

About 4 years ago they used to all be best friends with each other and another girl called Alison. But at the beginning of the Summer Alison goes missing and after all the police's questions and when things started to die down the 4 girls grew apart.

Now they're 16 and back at Rosewood Day (the High School). They aren't friends anymore so they don't realise that each of them have been receiving messages form someone called A, and the scary thing is that A seems to know all the secrets that Alison knew about the girls. But then about a week after those messages started Alison's body was finally discovered buried, which means she was dead for quite a while. So she couldn't be the one sending those messages because that's pretty impossible.

What I like about this book is that as you read it you start to find out all these different things about the girls and their secrets through flashbacks or messages. So it all build up to a big ending. There's a lot of tension and drama which keeps you on edge but at the same time there's also humour to balance it out. There are loads of books in this series. But I've only got the first 4. This is kind of a girl's book about teenage drama as well as mystery. The lives of these girls is pretty messed up which makes this book an interesting, funny read. It's also different to other books that I've read. As in unique.

Love Evita
xx
Thanks for reading!

The book Finders Keepers (Gifted, the fourth book)

Finders Keepers is about this dude called ken. There was this school where gifted students learn stuff about their gifts. When his best friend died in a football accident, ken was able to hear dead people.
Then there was an anonymous note inviting him to a seance, he was convince by the medium.
His classmates figured out that this medium was evil and want to talk to the dead to steal money.
Him and this girl (his classmate, who can snatch peoples body) were in great danger beacause the medium knows about their gifts.


It was an interesting book. I couldn't guess what happened next, it was very sudden when his best friend died and other stuff started happening. It is cool that they have different powers like reading minds, talk to the dead, snatch peoples bodies...

Survival


In this book 5 teenagers in a freak accident were marrooned on an inhabitant island. Alex is a survivalist expert, Amber is a high fashion girl who knows lots of languages, Li an animal and wilderness expert, Hex a super smart hacker and Paulo an exellent cook and farmer. They don't work well together at all. They would have to some how find away to work together and survive agaisnt great white sharks, killer komodo dragons and modern day pirates! I recomend this book because it is action packed informative and is suitable for all age groups.

THIRST


I think that THIRST is one of the best vampire books ever! There is a vampire who is extraordinary in many ways. She is over 5000 years old but to the human eye she looks about 18-22 because her appearence never changed since she was turned into a vampire by an evil one named Yaksha. She has the power to play with people's minds and the strength of 10 strong men. This book is different to other vampire books. Instead of being turned into a vampire or dieing when bitten, the person just becomes unconscious, unless the vampire tried to do something else. To be changed, the vampire needs to open their own vein and the victim and the person gets the vampires blood. Also the vampires don't need human blood to live, but they still need it when they are thirsty. They still eat food and digest it but it isn't as good as blood because blood gives them power.
The main character Sita, has many names and disguises. She is very rich and owns big houses and mansions. She is not afraid of anything, even death. Sita takes many risks to save humanity and nearly risks her life when doing so, but there are things that help her through her problems.
I LOVE this book because it puts all other fantasy books out of my memory (like TWILIGHT... sorry). However I would only recommend this book to older teens because of the use of language. Despite that, it is one of the best books I have ever read. Also, this is just THIRST number 1, there is numer 2 as well and I can't wait to read it.