Good luck!

The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion by L.J. Smith

This book was an enormous disappointment. I am not sure if the incompetency of the novel was due to drastic changes in my own tastes or a serious downfall in the quality of L.J. Smith's writing. I am betting on the former, since the period of time between reading the first volume and the second volume of the series was extensive. Yet, I am hesitant to believe I ever thought the Vampire Diaries series was an exceptionally good series when now, I cannot even bring myself to finish reading the first chapter. Seeing as I usually have a pretty high tolerance and can finish reading the book regardless, the Fury and Dark Reunion must be a disaster if I cannot even read a chapter. If you ask me what is so horrific about the book, I cannot pinpoint the issue, but what I can say is, I am definitely not going to revisit this series and will most likely keep away from Smith's other novel as well.

I know many people love the series and may be offended by my review of the book. I would love to hear how you may feel differently about the books and if you present a sound enough case, I may even give it another go; who knows?

Perfect (Pretty Little Liars #3) by Sara Shepard

"In Rosewood, Pennsylvania, four perfect-looking girls aren't nearly as perfect as they seem.
Aria can't resist her forbidden ex. Hanna is on the verge of losing her BFF. Emily is freaking out over a simple kiss. And Spencer can't keep her hands off anything that belongs to her sister.
Lucky me. I know these pretty little liars better than they know themselves. But it's hard keeping all of their secrets to myself. They better do as I say . . . or else!"

'A' keeps the story going with more suspense and a whole new thrilling plot. The Pretty Little Liars series never disappoints me, well rarely... :P and this one certainly hasn't! It is exactly what the title is, this book was PERFECT. I envy Sara Shepard's talented and adroit writing that I wish I could match up to one day. She describes each character's thoughts and feelings so well that you can totally understand how they all feel and what is really happening from their point of views. As always, the girls are again, being bothered by their miserable past. I liked the drama and the action!  Maybe it was just me, but this time, the book was unpredictable which made it way more captivating and appealing. It totally engrossed me and I would rate it a 10/10. :)

Girl of Nightmares, Kendare Blake - NOT MY REVIEW

Last time I attempted this, my computer crashed. Clearly it does not like that I'm too lazy to write my own review. Yes, this is not my review. I know, I know, shame on me, but I don't think I could capture the book's pure, unadulterated awesomeness more eloquently than Miss. Kat Kennedy. Hats off to you.

It begins...

The fol­low­ing book has been found in an aban­doned, run-down house along with a body, a pen, and a worn and tat­tered copy of Girl of Night­mares.  The walls have many words and phrases writ­ten in blood. It’s con­tents pro­vide the only clues to the events that led to the the death of a per­son and an increas­ing string of dis­tur­bances in the area.

It reads as such:

This is a jour­nal of my read­ing expe­di­tion.  I have trav­eled to this remote locale so that I may read Girl of Night­mares by Kendare Blake in soli­tude.  Rumour has it that this book is cursed and that whoso­ever reads it is doomed to have their wits scram­bled and to be left insen­si­ble.  Nev­er­the­less I bravely pro­ceed and scoff in the face of super­sti­tion.  My inten­tion is that oth­ers may ben­e­fit from the expe­ri­ences chron­i­cled within my jour­nal and use it as a ref­er­ence guide in their own read­ing expe­ri­ences of Blake’s sec­ond dip into the Anna Dressed in Blood Universe.

Page 1

I have been intrigued and sad­dened by the begin­ning.  Dear­est Anna, it seems, will likely not be a major char­ac­ter in this book, alas.  But the writ­ing remains of qual­ity and it seems there are to be some ghost.

Page 48

There have been some instances of excit­ing ghost hap­pen­ings, but also a great deal of plot set up and rela­tion­ship dynam­ics.  I rather won­der what the hype is but shall per­se­vere for now.

Page 150

It has been a dif­fi­cult slog.  There has been aver­age lev­els of awe­some recorded and long stretches between badassery.  I have grown weary of the angst and seek to end the exper­i­ment.  Per­se­ver­ance forces me onward and the ever­last­ing hope that I shall one day be reunited with Anna. Her lack of pres­ence in this novel has made it cum­ber­some and Cas’ angst, and the secrecy sur­round­ing him is weari­some.  I am start­ing to doubt the curse.  Worse yet, I am start­ing to doubt Blake.  How far I have fallen?  Tonight I shall weep tears of dis­ap­point­ment as I sleep with the lights on.

Page 235

Hark? Is this the same novel?  Surely some great charm has bewitched me.  My instru­ments do not lie, yet surely there has been a mis­take.  When I doc­u­mented the lev­els of awe­some, I was forced to nota­rize in my ledger that it was over 9000 and was unable to take fur­ther mea­sure­ments for I had inci­den­tally crushed my scouter in response.  “What? 9000?” I said in shock and awe.  “There’s no way that can be right!”

I am not sure what hap­pened next for I blacked out and was awoken the next day by hazy mem­o­ries.  There are now strange mark­ings on the wall but I know not what they mean.  I fear I have put them there.  Am I becom­ing a mon­ster?  Can this curse be true and is it tam­per­ing with my senses?

Page 291

I under­stand now.  I was fool­ish and igno­rant before, but I have been shown the way.  There is no human expla­na­tion.  Yet I real­ize now that life has no mean­ing, but for this book.  It is my only love.  My pur­pose.  It is the rea­son I have been born.  There is no curse.  Those who have not read it have been cursed.  It is all so clear to me now.  I have writ­ten a song for Blake that brings tears to my eyes as I sing it con­tin­u­ously through­out the night. It has become my only com­pan­ion through out my enlight­en­ment.  I have writ­ten it down so that this knowl­edge may be passed on through the ages.

Blake Blake Blake Blake, Blake.
Blake­Blake, Blake Blake Blake Blake Blake,
Blake Blake Blake, Blake­Blake.
BlakeBlakeBlake…Blake Blake Blake.
Blake

I hope that I am one day able to sing this song to her in per­son and that SHE WILL BE PLEASED WITH ME!

Page 332

OHTHEMOTHEROFAWESOMEITHINKICRIEDITWASJUSTSOBEAUTIFULWHYDIDITHAVETOENDCANTTHEREBEMOREHOWCUOLDYOUDOTHISTO

MEBUTITWASJUSTSOPERFECTILOVEDITSOMUCHSOMUCHWIN!

Snar­gle half-blabber!

...

My thoughts exactly. 

Most Ridiculous Book List

Containing brilliant, little treasures like the "Gangsta Rap Coloring Book" and "Natural Bust Enlargement with Total Mind Power", these books are PERFECT for anyone searching for that deep, thought-provoking piece of work you've wanted all summer.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9738.Most_absolutely_ridiculous_book#231058

BONUS! For all you Twilight fans out there.
"Twilight, True Love and You: Seven Secret Steps to Finding your Edward or Jacob"

If you're not convinced it's legit - guess what, it was written by a psychologist.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10913101-twilight-true-love-and-you

I am so amused by this right now. But I weep for humanity all the same.
Final Comments:

Weekly Winners...

With just 2 more weeks to go until the end of our Teen Summer Reading Club blog, we just wanted to thank everyone for their well thought out comments and reviews. Whether you posted once or many times your efforts did not go unnoticed. Our goal was to create a safe place where teen booklovers could share their love of books with other like-minded teens. We hope that you have had fun and that you will continue on with our teen online bookclub starting in mid-September.  Details TBA...

The weekly prize winners for this week are: Bendavis, Summerstar, Ashley, Ashini, Tine Reader and Angelaf. The number of posts you have contributed this summer is astounding! Congratulations.  

Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Summary from the book: At last, Miranda is the life of the party: all she had to do was die. Elevated and adopted by none other than the reigning King of the Mantle of Dracul, Miranda goes from high-school theater wannabe to glamorous royal fiend overnight. Meanwhile, her reckless and adoring guardian angel, Zachary, demoted to human guise as the princess’s personal assistant, has his work cut out for him trying to save his girl’s soul and plan the Master’s fast-approaching Death Day gala. In alternating points of view, Miranda and Zachary navigate a cut-throat eternal aristocracy as they play out a dangerous and darkly hilarious love story for the ages.


REVIEW: At first, I thought this book was stupid, because it made no sense to me, but as I kept reading it actually was pretty interesting! I liked the alternating  points of view, between Miranda ( the vampire) and Zachary ( Guardian Angel). It's kind of sad, because Zachary loves Miranda and yet he can't tell her that because he is forbidden to reveal his identity to Miranda.

One night Miranda goes to the grave yard with her best friend, and she became "undead"  Zachary made his biggest mistake, he  reveals himself to her to save her. I found it touching because Zachary sacrificed his position as Miranda's Guardian Angel...just to save her!   I give this 8/10 because I wish it was longer!