review: The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann

Book:  The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann
Release Date: 08/30/11

Excerpt:

Every year in Quill, thirteen-year-olds are sorted into categories: the strong, intelligent Wanteds go to university, and the artistic Unwanteds are sent to their deaths.

Thirteen-year-old Alex tries his hardest to be stoic when his fate is announced as Unwanted, even while leaving behind his twin, Aaron, a Wanted. Upon arrival at the destination where he expected to be eliminated, however, Alex discovers a stunning secret—behind the mirage of the "death farm" there is instead a place called Artime.

In Artime, each child is taught to cultivate their creative abilities and learn how to use them magically, weaving spells through paintbrushes and musical instruments. Everything Alex has ever known changes before his eyes, and it's a wondrous transformation.

But it's a rare, unique occurence for twins to be separated between Wanted and Unwanted, and as Alex and Aaron's bond stretches across their separation, a threat arises for the survival of Artime that will pit brother against brother in an ultimate, magical battle.

Review:
Hmm... Usually when i finish a book in one day it ends up in my absolute favorites section, but this one didn't quite make it. Perhaps it's the fact that i'm a twenty five year old reading a book made for those half my age. Perhaps i set my hopes too high. I don't know. That is not to say the book is bad per say. It's a pretty solid four. Just not good enough to be a five and absolute favorite.

The book is basically the story of Alex stowe who on his thirteenth birthday was deemed "unwanted". See in the world of Quill a person is either Wanted, Necessary, or Unwanted. Those who are deemed "unwanted" are sent to their death. Basically to possess a creative mind is to be unwanted. It would seem that Alex's fate was set except it wasn't really. Marcus Today aka The Death Farmer aka the great mage of Artime saves every being deemed unwanted by transporting him to his made up world of Artime. There all kinds of magically creatures live and the residents learn "Art" based magic. The thing is that Quill doesn't know about Artime and it must stay that way. Otherwise Quill's army would attack. And it does. Take in some evil twins, sometimes eye rolling names, and a kiddier friendly version of Harry Potter and you get this book.

In a way i think in some area the author was trying to hard. The cover reads "The Hunger Games met Harry Potter" and it really isn't. It may have some similar features, but it isn't comparable. It's miss-leading and perhaps raised my expectations way! too high. Some of the names are just plain dumb "Claire Morning" and i find myself rolling my eyes a bit. I think take ten years off my age and i would find this book fabulous. It's completely kids friendly and has no "black magic" per say. That is not to say it's Winnie the Pooh magic. More of Classic Disney magic. People die, things happen, but completely kid friendly.

Final rating. 4 Bunnies. I was a bit bored with it at some times, but i'll come back for the next book. 

Review: "England's Perfect Hero" by Suzanne Enoch

Book: England's Perfect Hero
Author: Suzanne Enoch
Release Date: 02/24/04

Excerpt:

Lucinda Barrett's best friends ended up married to the men to whom they delivered their 'lessons in love'. So Lucinda decides to choose someone who definitely needs lessons, but someone who will not complicate her life. And that person is definitely not Robert Carroway.

Robert is nothing if not complicated, and though he is the brother of a viscount, he rarely goes about society, and finds the weather and hat fashions ludicrous subjects for discussion. Robert is attracted to Lucinda's unpretentious ways, her serenity and her kindness. When she chooses someone for her love lessons, Robert offers to help her deliver her lessons, but sets out to convince the woman he has fallen for to take a chance on love ... and on him.

Review:
Funny, i've read this book tons of times, but have never written a review on it. First thing first i fell in love with Bit Carroway in "The Rake". I remember being ecstatic on finding out that he had his own book. I can safely say by the fact that i keep coming back and re-reading it that its one of my absolute favorite books of all time. Being that fact it is a bit hard for me to write a review on it.

The book reads the best when you read the whole "Lessons in Love" series in order. In a way the whole series has been a character development for Bit and Lucinda. You can see each of them growing in each book. This can be said of all the characters in trilogy, but especially true of these two.

Lucinda is the last of the trio to enact her lessons. She has no particular scoundrel in mind so she decides to find a man that she'll like to marry. After all, Evie and Georgie ended up marring their students. She chooses Mr. Geoffrey Newcombe. Handsome, the 4th son of a duke, and a war hero to boot. Simply perfect and safe. If not cheating a bit in terms of her lessons. Things would have gone smoothly if she hadn't stumbled upon Georgie's brother in law who had to ask about the lessons. Who "also" had to have those haunting blue eyes.

Bit has been quite the recluse the last three years. Think tortured and hurt hero and here's you man. (He's also mine if he ever decides to make himself solid and comes out of the book). He suffers from what is now known as Post dramatic stress syndrome and finds himself in a black panic whenever he gets out of his comfort zone. Yet he finds himself drawn to Lucinda. She's his ray of sunshine in his black world. Something that he can even admit to himself sounds stupid, but is true. Overhearing Lucinda talking with Evie and Georgie he can't help but be intrigued. When Lucinda brings him some roses to start a garden he offers to help Lucinda catch her suitor as a trade off. Anything to spend time with her.

The relationship between Bit and Lucinda is very heart warming. You can just tell from almost the get go that they're perfect for each other. They start off as amiable friends and work their way into love before either of them realize it. A perfect example of how love and bloom from friendship and not love/lust at first sight.

This is a brilliant book and one I HIGHLY recommend.

Final rating: 5 golden bunnies. Perfect in every way

Review: Night of the Soul Stealer (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles #3) by Joseph Delaney

Book: Night of the Soul Stealer (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles #3)
Author: Joseph Delaney
Release date: 08/16/07

Excerpt:
As the weather grows colder and the nights draw in, the Spook and his apprentice Tom Ward must be even more vigilant in their battles against the boggarts, witches, and ghosts roaming the county. When they receive an unexpected visitor, the Spook decides it is time to move to his winter house in Anglezarke. It is a bleak, forbidding place, full of witches and secrets. Tom hears rumors of menacing creatures stirring on the moors nearby, including the evil beast called Golgoth. Who was the mysterious visitor? And is Tom prepared for what he will find in Anglezarke?



Review: 
I actually finished this book a week ago and just forgotten to write a review. I think mainly it's because i don't have much to say. Compared to the previous two books this one felt like a filler. You learn some important things about characters, but nothing to add to the "larger picture". We also weren't treated to the "freak of the book". Instead we get a failed apprentice that has dabbled way!! to much in the dark arts. We only get our monster for a brief second and it was like Mr. Freeze the monster version. 


All in all 4 instead of 5 bunnies

Review: The Rake (Lessons in Love #1) by Suzanne Enoch

Book: The Rake (Lessons in Love #1)
Author: Suzanne Enoch
Release Date: 06/01/02

Excerpt:

Three determined young ladies vow to give three of London's worst rakes their comeuppance -- but when these rogues turn the tables, who truly learns a lesson in love?

Once upon a time, the notorious Viscount Dare charmed Lady Georgiana Halley out of her innocence -- to win a wager, no less! -- and now he must pay dearly. The, plan is simple: She will use every seductive wile she knows to win Dare's heart...and then break it. But his smoldering gaze once again tempts Georgiana to give in to desire -- and when he astonishes her with a marriage proposal, she wonders: Is he playing yet another game...or could it truly be love this time?

Review: 
It is book two in my re-read month. "The Rake" was the first book i read by Suzanne Enoch. I find it amazing that i always choose the best in authors series to read first. I was a little slower in reading this one since last week was a busy week. Anyways.... I really can't remember how old i was when i read this book. Nor can i remember where. I just remember loving it and being ecstatic to find out there were two others afterwards.

The hero and heroine unlike many other romances have known each other for quite a long time. In fact that have quite a long history. It was believed that Tristan and Georgiana were going to marry each other when Georgiana first came out. For Georgiana it was innocent love and bliss. And to quote Taylor Swift "She gave him everything she had for a boy that changed his mind". Except Tristan didn't as much change his mind, but seduce her to win a wager. And like the song "they both cried" except they became more plural to mean Georgiana and her "two" friends. Course the incident was summed up to a kiss and not a seduction which saved Georgiana reputation.

Still six years later Georgiana hasn't forgotten what Tristan did and she lets him know every chance she gets. So society seems them as enemies rather than possible marriage partners. So Georgiana and her two friends Evelyn and Lucinda come up with a plan to each teach a man a "love lesson" rather make the man fall in love with them and then dash their hearts to pieces. Georgiana chooses Tristan of course. Which leads her to moving in with him and his entire family to "Help" his one Aunt while she recovers from Gout. Which leads to a rather humorous and unforgettable romance.

I personally loved Tristan and his brothers more than i liked Georgiana. Then again that often turns out this way. I loved every interaction he had with his family. The playfulness and tenderness. He made me want to have him for a brother instead of mine. I'll trade anytime. You could tell from what we heard from various people and himself that he'd really grown up since his wager six years ago with Georgiana. It was nice to see and hear it on more than one front than a simple blanket statement.

Georgiana was quite the heroine as well. While i didn't love her as much as the guys i still loved her. She had a backbone and wasn't going to be a simpering female. She was her own woman and everyone was going to know it. She had her flaws which was a nice coutner point to her brashness and forwardness sometimes. Somethings she didn't think things all the way through and she wasn't above using others if it suited her (but not in a terrible way). It also helped that she had some nice sounding off room with Lucinda and her aunt Frederica.

Together the two of them made a witty couple that were clearly made for each other, but had a few realistic barriers to get through.

Final rating: 5 Bunnies. For great characters, story-line, and for introducing me to my fictional crush Bit Carroway.

Book Review: The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran

Book: The Heretic Queen
Author: Michelle Moran
Release date: 09/01/2009

Excerpt:
In ancient Egypt, a forgotten princess must overcome her family’s past and remake history.

The winds of change are blowing through Thebes. A devastating palace fire has killed the Eighteenth Dynasty’s royal family—all with the exception of Nefertari, the niece of the reviled former queen, Nefertiti. The girl’s deceased family has been branded as heretical, and no one in Egypt will speak their names. A relic of a previous reign, Nefertari is pushed aside, an unimportant princess left to run wild in the palace. But this changes when she is taken under the wing of the Pharaoh’s aunt, then brought to the Temple of Hathor, where she is educated in a manner befitting a future queen.

Soon Nefertari catches the eye of the Crown Prince, and despite her family’s history, they fall in love and wish to marry. Yet all of Egypt opposes this union between the rising star of a new dynasty and the fading star of an old, heretical one. While political adversity sets the country on edge, Nefertari becomes the wife of Ramesses the Great. Destined to be the most powerful Pharaoh in Egypt, he is also the man who must confront the most famous exodus in history.

Sweeping in scope and meticulous in detail, The Heretic Queen is a novel of passion and power, heartbreak and redemption.


Review:
Brilliant: adjective. to sparkle, glitter, bright, beam, luminous, this book. This book was everything and above. Again Michelle Moran writes a book which transports you to another time in history and it feels so real that you don't want to leave. You just want to break the time machine and yell "press on young man/woman". Then when you get to the very last page you feel a great deal of sadness for a loss you don't understand. I felt this way at the end of "Nefertiti", but was comforted by the fact there was a sequel in place. Unfortunately this time around there is no such book.

Michelle tells us the story of Nefertari in "The Heretic Queen" started at the tender age of 6. Why this age. Because the book is as much as a romance as a coming of age and in parts action adventure. At the age of 6 Nefertari has her first real memory of the man she would love all her life "Rameses II". We then get a fast forward to Nefertari age 13 and Rameses the great coronation as co-regent of Egypt. We also learn that things aren't all rosey for Princess Nefertari. She is always associated with the "Heretics" and her family name has been wiped clean from Egyptian record. On her mother, Queen Mutnodjmet, who was briefly married to Pharaoh Horemheb name has been left in tact. It is on this day we learn that Nefertari's love for the young prince and her willingness to do whatever it takes to be his wife. Along we way she runs into quite a few obstacles and grows into herself. She finds that her desire become Rameses chief wife is much more than her love for him. She must do it for herself as well.

As i mentioned before i loved this book. It's one of those books you run into every once in awhile that screams perfection in every which way that you can't put it down. Literally. So you find yourself finishing it in one day. There really isn't much more i can say except that if "Nefetiti" stoked my Egyptian obsession this one fanned the flames. I'm now on a hunt to read each and every book that takes place in ancient Egypt.

Final Rating: 5 Bunnies. Bravo Michelle Moran. Bravo! 

Review: The Duke and I by Julia Quinn (re-read)

Book: The Duke and I
Author: Julia Quinn
Release date: Jan 1st, 2000 (a re-read for me)

Excerpt:
Can there be any greater challenge to London's Ambitious Mamas than an unmarried duke?
--- Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, April 1813

By all accounts, Simon Basset is on the verge of proposing to his best friend's sister, the lovely---and almost-on-the-shelf---Daphney Bridgerton. But the two of them know the truth--it's all an elaborate plan to keep Simon free from marriage-minded society mothers. And as for Daphne, surely she will attract some worthy suitors now that it seems a duke has declared her desirable.

But as Daphne waltzes across ballroom after ballroom with Simon, it's hard to remember that their courtship is a complete sham. Maybe it's his devilish smile, certainly it's the way his eyes seem to burn every time he looks at her...but somehow Daphne is falling for the dashing duke...for real! And now she must do the impossible and convince the handsome rogue that their clever little scheme deserves a slight alteration, and that nothing makes quite as much sense as falling in love..


My Review:
Wow. What a difference a few years can make when reading a book. The first time i read "The Duke and I" i was 16 years old. I was young, innocent, and naive. I couldn't get enough of romance books.And i just adored every single Julia Quinn book i could get my hands on. Eleven years later, a grown single woman, i find myself still loving the book. Loved the book so much in fact that except for the first 20 pages i read it all in one afternoon/evening sitting. I haven't done that in a very very long time. Even with the most recent books i've jadored it's taken me 2-3 days to finish a book. I definitely think there is something to be said about the romances that were coming out in the early 2000's.

In this book, Julia introduces us to the famous "Bridgerton" family. One of the families I automatically connect in my mind with romance. Daphne is the eldest daughter of the family and after two seasons without a decent proposal is starting to lose hope. That doesn't deter her mother, Violet, from trying though. And so she is introduced to bachelor after bachelor. Every ball and party. Daphne knows the truth of things though. She is the "girl next store". The girl every man likes to chat with, but doesn't see as marriageable match. The ones that do she's rather didn't. Then she meets her brother Anthony's old friend and all that changes....

Simon is your typical hero in many ways. He's a Duke. Rich. Tall, dark, and handsome. And he has some issues. Big daddy ones and a surprisely stammering/stuttering problem that he's dealt with all his life. His goal on returning to England was to avoid society as much as possible. After all. He had no plans to marry or have children so why should he become involved. Yet society doesn't feel the same way about him and of course he gets tangled into it. At an event hosted by Lady Dansbury, Simon finds himself in a position that was more than he bargained for. He was quite happy to help out his friend Anthony's sister; he was not happy about becoming the newest catch to hit the ton. So he makes a bargain with Daphne. They'll pretend to form a attachment so that she may attract more men and he attract less women. If only Simon didn't start wishing the attachment wasn't fake...

On the topic of the two main characters i loved Simon. I've had to deal with speech issues all my life and found myself commiserating with him a lot. It was nice to have a character voice the issues that those of use who have trouble with certain sounds and words go through. It was far easier for me to connect with him than Daphne. Daphne on the other hand had some moments where i found myself wanting to hit her. The most being when she had sex with him when he was drunk because she wanted his sperm. I did not mistype that. Now that really didn't bother me when i was younger, but looking at it now i does bother me some. It was cruel of her to do so and in a way a bit violating. Yet the issue was never discussed in great length. It was merely shoved under the rug later when Simon basically says, not in these words, he could have stopped her if he wanted to. Something i'm not entirely sure of. If the character was fine with it i'll let it be since it wasn't rape and he doesn't entirely doing "it" against his will.

Together, Daphne and Simon work out quite well. They bounced right off of each other and could roll with things. Mostly.

Before i end this i should probably mention this story was the first appearance of Lady Whistledown. A brilliant creation of Julia's especially when you look at the whole series at once.

Final rating. 4 1/2. I only had one issue with the book and it was what i discussed above.