Book Updates

A little update on books.

Recently, I have read the following:

Saving Juliet by Suzanne Selfors
Silver Is For Secrets by Laurie Faria Stolarz
A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Red Is For Remembrance by Laurie Faria Stolarz
The Summoning by Kelly Armstrong

I possess and plan to read the following:

Ophelia by Lisa Klien
Rebel Angels by Libba Bray
Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

And in case I haven't reviewed all the ones I've read, I'm going to mini review them all! (Except Silver Is For Secrets because I'm sure I've reviewed that one!)

Saving Juliet by Suzanne Selfors


"Mimi Wallingford, Great Granddaughter of Adelaide Wallingford, has the life that most girls dream about, playing Juliet opposite teen heartthrob Troy Summer on Broadway in Shakespeare’s famous play. Unfortunately, she has no desire to be an actress, a fact her mother can’t seem to grasp. But when she and Troy are magically thrust into Shakespeare’s Verona, they experience the feud between the Capulets and Montagues first hand. Mimi realizes that she and Juliet have more in common than Shakespeare’s script—they are both fighting for futures of their own choosing. Mimi feels compelled to help her and with Troy’s unexpected help, hopes to give Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy a happily-ever-after-ending."

It was original. I liked all the characters. It made sense. The only thing I didn't like was the ending, and sometimes the character named Troy Summers.

A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

"It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?"

When I finished this book, it left me with one question: "What. Just. Happened?" Not the Did-I-just-have-an-acid-trip? kind. More like it-was-just-crazy, it-all-happened-in-a-blur, did-I-catch-that? kind of "What just happened?"

It was definitely a thriller. You may find this book under "Romance," though I don't understand why. This book had barely any romance. This, I think, was a book mostly about friendship, power, and secrets. And you know those Spanish soap operas where in every episode it's like, "Oh, that's not Michelina! It's really Ramon's sister-in-law's jealous ex-husband's secret spy!" or something ridiculous like that. Well, that happened a few times, but by the end, Libba made it seem not ridiculous, make sense, and play a role in the plot. The climax wasn't very epic, but it was good. Maybe they're just saving the epicness of the climax for the next books, because if the first is too epic, the others just can't follow up.

It was really good.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

"Agatha Christie's most famous and acclaimed novel! Ten strangers are gathered together on an isolated island by a mysterious host. They share the darkest secrets of their pasts, and then, one by one, they die."

I really didn't like it. There wasn't much suspense. The ending was too out of the blue. The characters acted unrealistically. The entire plot was this:
Exposition
Death
"Who did it?"
Death
"Who did it?"
Death
"Who did it?"
Death
"Who did it?"

and so on, until everyone was supposedly dead.

Red Is For Remembrance by Laurie Faria Stolarz

"Since Jacob's disappearance, Stacey has been trying to move on with her life. With a full scholarship, she begins classes at Beacon University, which her best friend Amber is also attending. But Stacey still misses Jacob and can't quite accept that she'll never see him again.

The president of Beacon introduces Stacey to his fourteen-year-old daughter Porsha, who is struggling with her own nightmares that foretell murder. The two become friends as Stacey helps the young girl cope with her frightening premonitions. They work together to find the boy in Porsha's dreams—locating him in a cult-like community. Despite their innocent goal to live peacefully without technology and material goods, there's a dark side to this community. And one of the members, Shell, looks remarkably like someone Stacey used to know . . ."

It was good.

It had barely any of that paranormal darkness and there wasn't much romance, and it seemed like it took a while for the book to start.

The chapters entitled, "Shell," however, made up for all of that with the way it kept us wondering and guessing and hoping, not to mention the way it made us all yell, "Oh my gosh, I know who it is!!!"

The next book is called Black Is For Beginnings and comes out in September. To my dismay, I have just found out that it will be a graphic novel. I have no problem with graphic novels, really, but it's the fifth in a series of four novels. One thing I think Stolarz was really good at throughout the series were the descriptions and such, and I also feel that those descriptions played a major role in the plot, and that if all she actually writes is a little bit of dialouge, the plot and sense of the story will sacrificed. It just looks like she's writing a graphic novel to get out of writing a real book.

The Summoning by Kelly Armstrong

"After years of frequent moves following her mother’s death, Chloe Saunders’s life is finally settling down. She is attending art school, pursuing her dreams of becoming a director, making friends, meeting boys. Her biggest concern is that she’s not developing as fast as her friends are. But when puberty does hit, it brings more than hormone surges. Chloe starts seeing ghosts–everywhere, demanding her attention. After she suffers a breakdown, her devoted aunt Lauren gets her into a highly recommended group home.

At first, Lyle House seems a pretty okay place, except for Chloe’s small problem of fearing she might be facing a lifetime of mental illness. But as she gradually gets to know the other kids at the home–charming Simon and his ominous, unsmiling brother Derek, obnoxious Tori, and Rae, who has a “thing” for fire–Chloe begins to realize that there is something that binds them all together, and it isn’t your usual “problem kid” behaviour. And together they discover that Lyle House is not your usual group home either…"

Good. Took a while for the story to start. I don't know if there actually was a plot. Chloe--the main character--was one of the smartest characters I've ever read, but in this book, she really didn't have a goal until the end of the book.

It ends with a cliffhanger, promising a great sequel.

You can here about the other books once I've read them, since this post is already so long.

Your Read-a-Holic Blogger,
Nadia