May Wrap Up!

Book Review | "The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening" by L. J. Smith

So I postponed my review of this book by a week in favor of posting my short rant about my run in with Awesomebooks last week. So I won't ramble too much before getting into this review. As most of you are probably aware, the popular television show "The Vampire Diaries" was based on a book series by the same name that began in 1991 and continues today (along with five spin-off series). I went into this book having watched just the first episode of the show a few years ago and after hearing a lot of less than amazing things about the book.
Since I read the book in italian, here is the description (and the cover) from the original edition, courtesy of Goodreads:
A Love Triangle of Unspeakable Horror...

Elena
Searching for the ultimate thrill, she vowed to have Stefan.

Stefan
Haunted by his tragic past, he struggled to resist her passion.

Damon
Driven by revenge, he hunted the brother who betrayed him.

The terrifying story of two vampire brothers and the beautiful girl torn between them.

Okay, so by now everyone is polarized as far as the vampire genre goes. After the huge boom in books due to the "Twilight" sage, interest has begun to dwindle in favor of the next "big" thing- and if you're someone who is over vampires, then I don't have to tell you to stay away from this book. I would say that it isn't incredibly original as a plotline, but I have never read any other YA vampire stories from the 90s and earlier, so this very well could have been a first of its kind. I just couldn't fall in love with anyone. Elena was self-centered and spoiled and isn't the strong female heroine a lot of readers look for in a book. She never seemed independent, even before she got the guy, she wouldn't be complete without him. Stefan was a little more likable..In a way. I enjoyed the flashbacks on his part- and a lot of other people agree, which is why the "Stefan's Diaries" books are a little more popular. 
In the present however, his tortured soul does little to balance her egotistical character making them seem like a truly dysfunctional pair. 
Aside from that, there were a few specific moments that jumped out as not making sense or being written in a very simple manner.
In the end, if you are a fan of the show, I can see you perhaps enjoying this, but otherwise you won't be missing much by skipping it. I would suggest checking out the author's "Forbidden Game" and "Dark Visions" trilogies. They have the same quick, easy to read writing, but with more complex plots and likeable characters. 

Book Review! | "Keeping Her" By Cora Carmack

I actually typed out this whole review, but it didn't save..YAY! So I'm just going to get right into the review.
If you haven't read "Losing It", the main story that lead to this novella, you can watch my video review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnOLJblHaEA&feature=youtu.be .
Before I get into my thoughts over the novella, here is the description:

Garrick Taylor and Bliss Edwards managed to find their happily-ever-after despite a rather . . . ahem . . . complicated start. By comparison, meeting the parents should be an absolute breeze, right?

But from the moment the pair lands in London, new snags just keep cropping up: a disapproving mother-in-law-to-be, more than one (mostly) minor mishap, and the realization that perhaps they aren't quite as ready for their future as they thought.

As it turns out, the only thing harder than finding love is keeping it.

Right off, if you are looking for a fun, light book that you'll love every bit as much as the original, this may not be the book for you.
There are quite a few things that annoyed me, seemed confusing, unnecessary..or just weren't consistent with "Losing It". 

The book makes it seem like, not only has Bliss had dating experience, but she's has multiple serious relationships, a fact that is denied specifically in the first book. She's much more needy and annoying in this storyline..her anxiety less endearing. Garrick is more controlling and childish. The entire situation surrounding his mother was elaborated in a strange way and the characters were unable to see the dozens of clear faults in some of their ideas. 
Spoiler: 
At one point, Garrick decides he should give up acting in pursuit of a well paying, stable job in London. The sentiment is great but A) he decides this without discussing it with Bliss, assuming she would go along with it and like the change because she is finally starting to get along with his mother B) he completely looks past all the reasons why this would NOT be a good idea: His friend, Graham, would have all the opportunities in the world to continue making plays at Bliss, his plethora of exes who would all love to have him back (Which- side rant...why is the idea that a literary male needs to have dozens of exes who can't seem to move on from him after the break-up a recurring theme? Because it's rather annoying and unrealistic.) and C) Bliss has grown up in the US! He can't honestly expect her to sign off on something like that on the short notice he would be giving her in the book, which is pretty much "Hey, I start Monday!" 

In the end, I didn't hate this book, despite how hard on it I'm being. However, it was in no way necessary. It didn't feel like a closing, no extra questions were answered, in fact..I was left with more questions than I went into the book with (and I went in with no questions at all.). I think the main issue was the novella's length- at only 110 pages of story, there was no time to expand on anything, so it all seemed thrown together as a way to milk as much from "Losing It" as possible.
 It was an inexpensive book, so if you really want to read more about Bliss and Garrick, then go ahead, but I don't consider it a must-read by any means.

Book Review | "Shakespeare and Company" by Sylvia Beach.

For those of you who have been following my blog, you'll know that I was able to visit Paris at the end of March (something I had been wanting to do for easily ten years). While I was there, I of course- as well as, I'm sure many other book lovers- had to visit the Shakespeare & Co. bookshop. I bought a few books, which I never ended up doing a haul over due to other videos that needed posting, and then too much time passing. Anyway, I bought two historical books while I was there. One being a short historical booklet of the current shop and the late shop-owner, the other being a memoir written by Sylvia Beach about her bookshop. The original Shakespeare and Company.
While it was a pricey book (around 20 euros, I think) I had saved my money and convinced myself to get it.
 That's all a very long introduction to my review- but here it is!

Sylvia Beach was intimately acquainted with the expatriate and visiting writers of the Lost Generation, a label that she never accepted. Like moths of great promise, they were drawn to her well-lighted bookstore and warm hearth on the Left Bank. Shakespeare and Company evokes the zeitgeist of an era through its revealing glimpses of James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Sherwood Anderson, Andre Gide, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, D. H. Lawrence, and others already famous or soon to be. In his introduction to this new edition, James Laughlin recalls his friendship with Sylvia Beach. Like her bookstore, his publishing house, New Directions, is considered a cultural touchstone.

There isn't too much to say about the book. It's a memoir that briefly recounts Beach's childhood and how she ended up opening an American bookshop in Paris- then continuing in much more detail her work with James Joyce and her relationships with countless other writers/publishers of the era. It was a relatively slow read, because of all the detail and the names- but I did enjoy it. Obviously, this isn't going to be a book for everyone. If you enjoy literary history, or literature from the 1920s, then I think you'll enjoy this more. Considering the price of my edition and the, what seems to be, less than frequent publishing of the book, I definitely say that if you have a chance to read it- go ahead, but it isn't necessarily worth spending a lot of money on if you aren't completely fascinated by the subject.