Review | "All My Life" (First Things #1) By Rucy Ban

This week's review is over another Amazon free download that I recently read while travelling. It has a 3.5 star average on Goodreads, a 2.5 star rating from me, and two companion novels.
Before I go into more details as to my thoughts, though, here is the Goodreads description:

Seventeen-year-old Kari meets Neil Mars. “Neil as in Armstrong and Mars…as in Bruno.” A boy who beats every vampire, werewolf, highlander fantasy Kari has ever had. But she knows she can’t get close to him. Not ever. Because that would mean telling him everything. Coming clean. And Kari can’t bear the idea of changing the way Neil looks at her. Like she’s the only girl in the world. His reverence is something too precious to lose. Perhaps even at the cost of losing him.

But Kari doesn't know why Neil calls her his ‘Angel’ and when she finds out, she realizes what love is all about. Boundless joy, unending longing and a fuckload of heartache.

***
Full length New Adult Contemporary Romance. 

I had a few issues with this book.
That isn't to say it was horrible, but I definitely have a few thing to mention here. 
The writing itself was a little lacking. It read like someone trying too hard to seem like a teenager and the plot contained a lot of faulty reasoning that only served to push the story onward.
Really, this novel could have been wrapped up 20 pages in and it was frustrating to me personally that the characters seemed to lack the common sense to realize that. 
Also, the main character is 17, yet she's being let into clubs and parties that she shouldn't be allowed inside, which threw me off a little (but that's a technicality and could easily be ignored). 
The characters themselves weren't that likable. Kari was annoying, there were major cases of insta-love and insta-friendship (I admit that the latter is very possible, but it wasn't done in a way that seemed organic). 
The storyline all of a sudden goes insane. Twists and and action and plot points that are meant to shock, but once that wears off, just left me confused. 
In the end, I read the book in once sitting. It was a fast read, but I admit I had to skim through some of the more eye-roll worthy parts. 
This is the first book in a series, but it really should have stayed a stand alone, I think- and I don't plan on continuing on with the rest of the books.  

Review | "Love Handles" (Oakland Hills #1) by Gretchen Galway

This week's review is over a romantic comedy, women's literature read that is available for free download from amazon (or was at the time I read it in March of this year).

This book averages around a 3.5 star rating on Goodreads, and my opinion falls just below it at a 3 star rating. Before I get into my thoughts, here's the book's description courtesy of Goodreads:

The world of fitness apparel isn't ready for Beverly Lewis. She hates the gym, is nice to everybody, and shops at Ross Dress for Less. When she's not teaching preschool, she's wearing yoga pants . . . to nap in. So when she inherits her estranged grandfather's fitnesswear company in San Francisco, nobody expects her to keep it. Fite Fitness needs a heartless suit to save it from bankruptcy, not a thirty-year-old woman who cries when her students leave for kindergarten.
Someone like Liam Johnson. A former Olympic swimmer, Liam is Fite's executive vice president. Unlike Bev, he's devoted his life to Fite's success. Managing one little preschool teacher--and his attraction to her--shouldn't be an issue. Right?
But Bev's tired of being underpaid and underrated, and refuses to step aside as an obedient figurehead. To everyone's shock and horror, she moves up to San Francisco, sets up an office, and dives into the business. Nothing--not mockery, not exercise, not sabotage, not a disastrously hot night with her aggravating VP--is going to scare her away.
As Liam realizes she's tougher than she looks, he discovers that losing Fite might not be nearly as bad as losing her . . .
A story about the pursuit of love, happiness, and the perfect yoga pants, Love Handles will speak to anyone who's ever had to face what scares her most. 

As you can probably tell, this book isn't trying to be the next great american novel, like a lot of these books, it's supposed to be a fun read. 
That being said, I noticed some things that bothered me: 
For one, I couldn't understand how the company, the central point of the storyline, the cause of the conflict and resolution etc, could have been still in business to begin with. Everyone is annoying, not just in the first few chapters, but throughout the entire novel. I couldn't stand anyone and no one really seemed to be doing any work. 
I also noticed that there were a shocking amount of "heartless" characters. I know the world is cruel and not everyone is nice, but this was a little extreme. A preschool director said that teachers shouldn't care for their students...I mean, really? And whoever wasn't heartless was far too quirky to be real. Not everyone can be a manic pixie dream girl.
There was a lot of useless dialogue and arguing just for the sake of arguing without any real conflict. In fact, Bev kept defending people she's never met as if she's known them for ages while Liam doesn't act the way he should around someone who holds his career in their hands. 
I didn't buy the tension between the characters as a budding romance, and I can't stand the "guy with deep relationship issues who only dates girls he can't stand so they can just have flings" cliche. And it is, I've read far too many books now that use it as a plot crutch, and I'm sure I'll come across that plot tool again. It doesn't usually make the character endearing, usually whoever it is (guy or girl) come off as a creep.
These grown adults don't communicate....
The love scenes were a little....iffy. 
The whole thing wraps up a little too nicely and in a non-nonsensical sort of way.

In the end, it was free, I had a lot of free time when I read it, and I got the book over with pretty quickly, but I won't continue with the series if I have to purchase the books and I definitely say you can skip it.

Review | "From the Kitchen of Half Truth" by Maria Goodin

This week's review is over  2012 debut novel "From the Kitchen if Half Truth" released in English also under the title "Nutmeg" and "The Storyteller's Daughter".
While a cute story, it isn't the type of book I would find myself reaching for typically, however in February Sterling & Kupfer publishing house released a "blind date line" of books for Valentine's Day. Each book was wrapped to cover all the information about the book, leaving only a short description about what type of reader or story it was- and I was pleasantly surprised.
Before I get into my thoughts, here's the book's Goodreads description:

Infused with the delicious warmth of Chocolat and captivating feeling of School of Essential Ingredients, FROM THE KITCHEN OF HALF TRUTH is the warm, tender story of Meg, who can’t convince her cooking-obsessed, fairy-tale loving mother to reveal a thing about their past, even as sickness threatens to hide those secrets forever. Driven to spend one last summer with her mother, Meg must face a choice between what’s real and what we make real, exploring the power of the stories we tell ourselves in order to create the lives we want. 

I enjoyed this book, but I did notice a few things that made me less excited to read it (in fact, it took me over a month to finish and I had to put it down to read something else multiple times until I got around a third of the way through). 
Right away Mark's character was off-putting. He was a jerk. I don't know if he was intended to come across like that or not- but it made believing Meg was utterly in love with him difficult. 
If Meg's life was that out there the way she was described, someone would have noticed and done something/understood why a young girl believes imaginary events to be true whole-heartedly the way Meg is said to have. 
Meg's grudge over something that happened to her in the 5th grade feels a little far-fetched, and as a scientist, she should know the difference between "impossible" and "improbable". 
Meg as a character wasn't too likable. She came across as rude and condescending while also lacking common sense she thinks she has.

This is a light read that shouldn't be analyzed too much, because then you notice all these little things that bring the book down some. I think this is a good summery read that has enough heart to pull at your emotions, but isn't life changing.

Book Reviews | "Quidditch Through the Ages" and "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling

This week's review is a two for one over two of the three "Hogwarts Library" books I bought while visiting the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Tour. I figured this would be a good way to make up for the little break I took since June while I was away travelling.
For those of you who may have forgotten, both "Quidditch..." and "Fantastic Beasts..." are mentioned as being texts from the Harry Potter series. In fact, throughout both books, there are notes from the characters or little elements that make the books really seem like part of that world.
Before I start to reveal too much, here is the Goodreads description for "Quidditch Through the Ages":

If you have ever asked yourself where the Golden Snitch came from, how the Bludgers came into existence or why the Wigtown Wanderers have pictures of meat cleavers on their robes, you need Quidditch Through the Ages. This edition is a copy of the volume in Hogwarts School Library, where it is consulted by young Quidditch fans on an almost daily basis. 

Both of these books are very short, easily read during one sitting, and they are written to be non-fiction seeming, so there isn't much to review.
I liked how the history of quidditch was easily paralleled to the development of our 'muggle sports'. If you know some sport history, you notice a lot of similarities to how things evolved. 
I would have liked, however, for there to have been more "technical" drawings and diagrams to help give better visuals for the chapters about strategy and formations etc. 



"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" :

A copy of Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them resides in almost every wizarding household in the country. Now Muggles too have the chance to discover where the Quintaped lives, what the Puffskein eats and why it is best not to leave milk out for a Knarl.

Proceeds from the sale of this book will go to Comic Relief, which means that the pounds and Galleons you exchange for it will do magic beyond the powers of any wizard. If you feel that this is insufficient reason to part with your money, I can only hope that passing wizards feel more charitable if they see you being attacked by a Manticore.

- Albus Dumbledore

"Fantastic Beasts..." seems to be the least favorite among readers of the Hogwarts Library books, but I think it was my favorite of the three. The added annotations from Ron specifically made this a very cute read. 
I liked the text book feel of the book, it made it more authentic seeming, but it wasn't written in a dry, boring sort of way. 
Like "Quidditch" I wish there had been more pictures/illustrations to go with the beast descriptions. 
Also, Dementors were missing, are they considered beings? Hmmm...

Anyway, I enjoyed both books. The proceeds go towards a good cause, and they're great for any Harry Potter fan. However, if you just like the series, or are new to the books, you can pass or wait to pick these up.

Review | "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August" by Claire North

This week's review is over a 2014 science fiction release by Claire North ( a pseudonym for Catherine Webb, who also writes under the pseudonym Kate Griffin). This is the first book by this author that I've read, but I noticed it getting a lot of attention- and when I saw it in a bookstore in February, I decided to pick it up.
Before I get into my thoughts, here's the book's Goodreads description:

No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes.

Until now.

As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. ‘I nearly missed you, Doctor August,’ she says. ‘I need to send a message.’

This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow. 

I don't know how long it's been since I've read a time-travel sort of book, so I was really excited to see how the author would twist that sci-fi subgenre. 
I don't have many notes about the book, but here's what I noticed. The book is written in a very descriptive sort of way, which makes the story a little dense and hard to get into, and since the story is mostly Harry recounting his various lives, it slows down quite a bit at times. It's done strategically- along with with the non-linear recounting- so the reader will be taken on a journey, however, it doesn't necessarily make sense when you get to the ending. What I mean by that is, the entire point of the story, once you finish it, would have been more concise and to the point, and thus, it would have made more sense for the narrator to tell the story in chronological order. The way the story is told is good for the reader, but not so much for the the narrator's intended audience. 
I found myself struggling through the second half of the book because it's quite slow, so I would keep that in mind. It's a thought provoking sort of read and would be great for reading groups, but be aware that it's not the quickest story in the world. 

Review | "Marina" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

This week's review is over a book in one of my favorite genres, the gothic fiction/fantasy/magical realism. I first saw "Marina" in a bookstore in October, and after going home to do my research, I jumped at the chance to buy it on sale while visiting London this past February.
Here is the book's Goodreads description before I get further into my thoughts:

In May 1980, fifteen-year-old Oscar Drai vanishes from his boarding school in Barcelona. For seven days and nights, no one knows his whereabouts....

His story begins when he meets the mysterious Marina, the daughter of a reclusive painter. She takes him to a graveyard where they witness a macabre ritual. On the last Sunday of every month, a woman shrouded in black walks over to a gravestone that bears no name, only the emblem of a black butterfly.

When Oscar and Marina decide to follow her, they begin a journey that takes them to the heart of a forgotten, post-war Barcelona. Beneath the streets a dark secret lies waiting. 

As I mentioned, this is a gothic sort of tale (though it takes place in the 1980s not the gothic era). The exact genere blurs a little throughout the course of the book and I don't want to give away too many spoilers- especially because this book crafted its plot twists beautifully that truly makes not knowing what's coming next a big part of the experience.
Now, as much as I enjoyed this story, there were a few- rather minimal- things I'll bring to attention.
Oscar and Marina do quite a bit of inner city travelling, I understand that usually those costs can be minimal, but they do it often enough to make me wonder where they're getting the money. Marina's family is rather unwealthy at the time of the book, and Oscar mentions early on that he had to borrow money from a school friend.
The translations had some word repetition (specifically adjectives that were used over and over as descriptors).
The fantasy  elements are very complicated. There is a very specific design behind them that can only barely be mentioned in the short amount of time it's allotted for explanation in the book so it can be difficult to follow at times.
In the end, I'm very glad I had a chance to read this book, and if you like gothic stories, you'll enjoy this.

Review | "Haifa Fragments" by Khulud Khamis

This week's review is over a different sort of book, "Haifa Fragments" , which I was fortunate enough to win in a Goodreads giveaway.
I don't have much to say about this book, other than that I really enjoyed it, but before I get into my review, here's the book's description:

Jewellery designer Maisoon wants an ordinary extraordinary life, which isn’t easy for a tradition-defying, peace-activist, Palestinian citizen of Israel who refuses to be crushed by the feeling of being an unwelcome guest in the land of her ancestors. Frustrated by the apathy of her boyfriend Ziyad and her father Majid—who want her to get on with her life and forget those in the Occupied Territories—she lashes out, only to discover that her father is not the man she thought he was. 
Raised a Christian, in a relationship with a Muslim man and enamoured with a Palestinian woman from the Occupied Territories, Maisoon must determine her own path.  

The point of view switches some throughout the book without warning, so it takes some getting used to and at times you won't know exactly who you're reading about until other characters are mentioned.  And the story itself is a little rushed, lacking some of the exposition that would help understand the characters' history a little better.
However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The only other story like this I've read would be the "Almond Tree" a few years ago, and even then it's very different. I enjoyed both stories, but while  story follows years of development of the main character, this is a story that takes place in the present day. The situations are different, and the main idea is different, but they're both done beautifully in their own ways. 
This book read a bit like poetry and I think anyone who considers themselves a feminist, a pacifist, anyone who wants to read about self discovery without necessarily reading a coming of age novel will enjoy this book.