Fire [Book Review]

Fire
By: Kristen Cashore
Published: September 24, 2009
Publisher: Gollancz
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Finished on: August 26, 2011

Summary: She has been hidden away. Now she is choosing to use her power. It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. Young King Nash clings to the throne, while rebel lords, in the north and south, build armies to unseat him. War is coming. The mountains and forests are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose startling appearance is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her. Everyone … except Prince Brigan.

I’m giving this book a 4/5 stars. I liked it, but not to the point of totally loving it. (:
Kristin Cashore’s writing style is very different from any other book that I’ve read and it showed much more in Fire then in Graceling. Or maybe it’s just because I don’t read other books that contain these elements: like pregnancy and prevention. I’ve never read books that contain these unless it’s school related books but I’m not complaining that it’s bad either.

The plot was kinda slow for me in the beginning. But it’s got nice adventure scenes and some love tension between some characters which was nice. It took me like 200 pages before I got totally engrossed, but I loved how it ended <3 It was way better than the ending for Graceling. xD

The characters were awesome, and for some reason, Brigan reminded me of this one disney character’s personality but I can’t remember who. Once you get towards the middle of the story, there’s an introduction of multiple different characters and I enjoyed all of them. I thought that it was funny to read about how Nash tries not to show his affection but he tries so hard and that’s pretty admirable considering Fire’s position. And I also loved how I got to know more about Leck and his past.

To be truthful, I enjoyed Graceling much more than Fire. I think it’s because Graceling was so good in my opinion, I had such high expectations for Fire that it didn’t just cut it for me. And the book I got had many different review in the inside flap and one mentioned that it was going to be a “memorable love story” and I love romance in my books, but their connection didn’t cut it for me. It was good but not compared to what was written about them. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy it.

I don’t know if it’s just me and that I’m not paying close enough attention but I got confused throughout the story quite a lot of times. But I think that this book had some unanswered questions that I didn’t get. I hope that it all ends well with the final book (:

13 Little Blue Envelpes [Book Review]

13 Little Blue Envelopes
By: Maureen Johnson
Published: October 1, 2006
Publisher: Harper Teen
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Summary: Inside little blue envelope 1 are $1000 and instructions to buy a plane ticket. In envelope 2 are directions to a specific London flat. The note in envelope 3 tells Ginny: Find a starving artist. Because of envelope 4, Ginny and a playwright/thief/bloke-about-town called Keith go to Scotland together, with somewhat disastrous-though utterly romantic-results. But will she ever see him again? Everything about Ginny will change this summer, and it’s all because of the13 little blue envelopes.
The plot was simple but ????????

In my opinion, I love how the plot revolved around traveling around Europe but sometimes, I just didn’t get the visual imagery or maybe it’s just me cause sometimes when I read the description of all the different places mentioned I just get kinda bored. I know that there are other people out there that mentioned that they loved this book especially the concept of traveling, and yes it mentions a lot of the different cities in Europe. I think that I liked Amsterdam the best though.

The characters? … . I don’t really know, they had their own personality and to be quite honest, most of the time, my favorite characters are usually main characters but this time, I liked Mari the best. xD Her personality showed alot more in the story than anyone else besides Ginny’s aunt. Keith wasn’t “bad” either but he was kinda similar to Ginny and considering that he was the love interest of the story, he didn’t pop up that often which kinda sucked.

The one think that I really really really really really didn’t enjoy was the connection between Ginny and Keith. To be honest, I didn’t feel anything between them during the story. I thought that her love interest was really supposed to be a “starving artist” but I didn’t figure that out until something happened between them and I was like “what??” Seriously, there was like ZILCH, NADA, NOTHING between them and then on one page, she’s like, “I think I like him”. Other than that, it was a pretty relaxing read.

I don’t really remember it that well cause I finished it a while back but the main things are the important facts. OH! and I wish that the pictures that they described were actually real! the painted pictures mentioned seemed so realistic I wish I could see the real details and colors in real life. The funny thing was that I read this while traveling, but I was traveling to a national park which kinda defeats the point of Europe but at least I got the traveling part.

Finished on: August 23, 2011

- James (Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater)

Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception [Book Review]

Lament The Faerie Queen's Deception (Book 1)
By: Maggie Stiefvater
Publication: October 1, 2008
Publisher: Flux
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Summary: Sixteen year old Deirdre Monaghan is a prodigiously gifted musician. She’s about to find out she’s also a cloverhand - one who can see faeries. Unexpectedly, Deirdre finds herself infatuated with a mysterious boy names Luke who enters her ordinary life, seemingly out of thin air. But his increase in her might be something darker than summer romance. When a sinister faerie name Aodhan shows up with a deadly orders from the Faerie Queen, it forces Dee right into the midst of Faerie. Caught in the crossfire with Deirdre is James her wisecracking but loyal best friend. Deirdre had been wishing her summer weren’t so dull, but taking on a centuries-old Faerie Queen isn’t exactly what she had in mind.

The plot was great also because it kept me interested and reading till the end just to know what will happen with Deirdre and Luke. Earlier I thought that this book was going to be similar to the Iron King’s settings (which I have not read yet but I heard that Megan was brought to a fairy world) but everything took place in her own town.

The characters were awesome as well. But then it felt as if the villains were only doing an OK job. Usually I would be screaming at the book because of the evildoing’s but I didn’t have that much of a reaction on this book. Deirdre didn’t get on my nerves at all and Luke was trying to be mysterious, if you know what I mean. James was probably the funny character because everything he mentioned had a joke to it.

This was an awesome read. I went at a reasonably fast pace. At first, I was skeptical to actually read this at all because it seemed very vague and I didn’t expect to love this book either at all. Surely enough, it wasn’t what I had expected it to be at all. It’s got romance, with a mix of mystery in it as well which I loved. This is the second book that I have read from Maggie Stiefvater and I definitely enjoyed this a lot more than Shiver.

The reason I didn’t give it a full 5 stars was because there were specific parts in the story that I felt they didn’t explain enough. Like it was just “glossed over”. Let me know if you felt that way as well if you’ve read it as well. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an easy and quick read and is also looking for a story with a mix of romance, mystery, and faeries. [:

Finished on: August 15, 2011