Tag: book reviews

Sunday Funday: Month in Review [July]

Posted August 4, 2014 in Month In Review, Sunday Funday / 7 Comments

Sunday Funday is generally a weekly(ish) post I started to recap my bookish and not-so-bookish thoughts. I’ve decided to expand this concept to monthly recaps during the last week of the month as well! As always, feel free to participate, just link back! Total Books Read: 8 Goodreads 2014 Reading Challenge Progress: 34/50 books Number of DNFs: 1 (Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson) (Click the links to see my reviews!) Love Letters to the Dead Second Chance Summer The Raven Boys The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer The Dream Thieves Dangerous Girls The Princess Diaries (Re-Read) Princess in the […]

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater- Review

Posted July 31, 2014 in Books, Reviews / 7 Comments

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater My rating: 3.5/5 Stars Publisher: Scholastic (2013) Length: 439 pgs Series: The Raven Cycle, #2 Format: Hardcover, purchased from Amazon Goodreads Synopsis: Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after… My Review: You may be shocked, after […]

Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas- Review

Posted July 22, 2014 in Books, Five Star Reads, Reviews / 11 Comments

Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas My rating: 5/5 Stars! Publisher: Simon Pulse (2013) Length: 400 pgs Format: Paperback, purchased from Amazon Goodreads Synopsis: It’s Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives. But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations. As Anna sets out to find her friend’s killer; she discovers hard truths about her friendships, the […]

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson- Review

Posted July 19, 2014 in Books, Reviews / 2 Comments

If Sarah Dessen is the Queen of the Contemporary Summer YA Novel, the Matson is hard at work becoming her successor. This is the second novel by Matson I’ve read and her ability to create an immersive summer experience for her characters seems to be her trademark. I read this on the beach while I was at Aulani, and it was the perfect beach read- a light surface story with heavier feelings cloaked beneath the surface. The plot of Second Chance Summer is two-pronged: Taylor’s dad is terminally ill and her family is spending the summer bonding and coming to […]

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater- Review in Which I Rave About Everything in this Book

Posted July 12, 2014 in Books, Five Star Reads, Reviews / 15 Comments

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater My rating: 5/5 Stars! Publisher: Scholastic (2012) Length: 409 pgs Series: The Raven Cycle, #1 Format: Paperback, purchased from Amazon Goodreads Synopsis: “There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.” Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers […]

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira- Review

Posted July 9, 2014 in Books, Reviews / 8 Comments

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira My rating: 3.8(ish)/5 Stars Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Macmillan)(April 2014) Length: 327 pgs Format: Hardcover, checked out from my local library Goodreads Synopsis: It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more; though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about […]

East of Eden by John Steinbeck- Review

Posted April 24, 2014 in Books, Reviews / 8 Comments

East of Eden by John Steinbeck My rating: 4.5/5 Stars Publisher: Viking Press (1952) Length: 602 pgs Format: Hardcover, checked out from my local library Goodreads Synopsis: Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families – the Trasks and the Hamiltons – whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new, rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal […]