Review: Across the Universe (Across the Universe #1)

Title: Across the Universe (Across the Universe #1)
Author: Beth Revis
Rating: 4/5 stars


Goodreads description:
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.


My Review:
First I just want to say AMAZING COVER!! Isn't it beautiful!?

I waited a long time to write this review - mostly because I wasn't sure what to say. I liked this book but I didn't love it. I didn't feel really connected with the characters, even though I understand I really can't because I have no idea what life on a spaceship would be like. I liked the characters but I didn't love them.

I don't know if there just wasn't enough happening in the book for me, but I found myself bored sometimes. I do have to say that everthing wasn't predictable so I wasn't that bored. I think some things were just not interesting to me. I found the behaviors on the ship down right halarious at some points and other times I was just like 'are you serious?!'.

Not bad but not amazing, I would settle for good.

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Review: Dream Dark

Title: Dream Dark
Authors: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Rating: 5/5 stars


Goodreads summary:
When Link joined his best friend, Ethan Wate, on a quest through a mysterious network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, he knew the journey would be dangerous. But returning home to Gatlin, South Carolina was just the beginning...

Wounded during a climactic battle, Link discovers that tending his injuries won't be as simple as visiting a doctor and that healing his arm should be the least of his worries. For being bitten by a Supernatural does more than break the skin -- it changes a person, inside and out, turning Link into someone more and more like the dark creature who injured him.

In this never-before-seen short story by New York Times bestselling authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, readers witness Link's heart-racing transformation. Dream Dark is set before the much-anticipated third Beautiful Creatures novel, Beautiful Chaos, and as a special bonus includes an exclusive sneak peek at the first five chapters.


My Review:

This was great! Loved Links story and I honestly loved reading so much about Link. Who was talking threw me off a little because I couldn't figure out if it was third person or from Ethan's POV a couple times, but other than that flawless! Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness were a little too wordy for me - things were described too much - but I didn't feel that way at all with this story.

Poor Link. I wish it was longer. It was so short! I think I like learning about Link more than I do Ethan. Made me extremely excited for Beautiful Chaos.

Review: Forever (Shiver #3)

Title: Forever (Shiver #3)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Rating: 4/5 stars

Goodreads summary:

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. In Linger, they fought to be together. Now, in Forever, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in.

My review:

I feel like it took me too long to read this book. I was really looking forward to a good read after I finished Linger and in the end came out a little disappointed. Sam and Grace are ultimately trying to figure out how to stay together, and keep the pack safe simultaneously.

Throughout this whole series I feel like Sam was just a broken down-spirited person, and that's not how I wanted to picture him. Every time I picture him he has a pained looked on his face. I know he's been through a lot but I didn't like this image, and I feel it's what he was portrayed as. I didn't picture him as the strong heroic type, well I did a little but a broken, sad, heroic type.

I think things were drawn out too much in the story. I think too many moods were described and things could have been cut down a lot.

The ending could have done more for me. I know she left it pretty much open so you can get what you want out of it. Maybe she will return to it later? (Even though I think not because she said goodbye to the series at the end of the book). But I can only hope. Because there are still way too many 'what ifs' for me. I want to know what happens. I don't want to be left guessing. The ending also confused me somewhat. I feel like there definitely should have been another book with that ending. It ended right in the middle of a scene is what is felt like. I couldn't read Sam's emotions and I couldn't even tell what was happening completely. ****spoiler... where was she going? If she was just turning into a wolf to be changed she shouldn't be a wolf that long then, right? *******

Lastly, I wish there was more Cole and Isabel! I loved reading Isabel's parts the best, probably because with her (and Cole) you had to read in between the lines. What they were thinking and feeling wasn't laid out for you and I liked that. That's why I found Sam's thoughts and emotions so tediously described at points - because it's fun to figure people out! I loved Cole and Isabel though. ***spoiler, it'd be great to get a spin off story about them!!****

Sadly, this book didn't deliver as much as I was hoping. Not a bad series though.

Review: Linger (Shiver #2)

Title: Linger (Shiver #2)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Rating: 4/5 stars

Goodreads summary:

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love -- the light and the dark, the warm and the cold -- in a way you will never forget.

My Review:

Another great novel.

In the beginning I was a little uninterested because things were a little slow. I felt like Sam's emotions were repeated too much. I wanted more action instead of everyone talking about their feelings. So for me, the beginning was too slow. But then stuff started happening and I became really interested in the story again.

There are two other characters this book focuses on besides Sam and Grace. Isabel, Grace's friend, and Cole, a newly turned wolf.

Possible spoilers*****
I couldn't figure out how Sam was able to stay human so much. I know he thinks he figured it out but it's just not making any sense to me really. It makes sense I just thinks it's somewhat of a stretch with all the other people turning into wolves so easily.
********

I LOVED that we focused on Cole and Isabel though. In fact, I think I even liked their stories and their characters better than I did Sam and Grace. Cole is a complex character but he's so interesting I found myself loving him. Isabel was the same way.

Sam and Grace were just a little boring in this book. Grace was really secretive and Sam was just blah. I love Sam, but I wasn't a huge fan of him in this book. His love is undeniable and I admire it but I don't understand how they couldn't talk to each other about their problems like a good communicating couple should.

Other than that, a good book. I would reread this story again simply for Cole and Isabel.

I Miss This

I forgot how much I missed blogging until I started rereading my posts from abroad. God, I had a great time down under. All my traveling, getting to know myself, and all the unexplainable experiences I had there are all bombarding me right now. I want to go somewhere, far away, RIGHT NOW!!

But the point of this post was supposed to be so that I could tell you how much I miss blogging and that right now I'm telling myself I'm going to be doing more of it. I miss writing and I'm starting to get in the habit again. After talking to my mom about writing once, because she knows it's always something I've been into, she, or maybe I came up with the idea, that writing is like working out. You might love it and you always feel better when you do it, but starting and getting into that habit is painful. Not that writing for me is painful, trust me, it's not. It's not that I don't want to do it either, because I do. Maybe unless you already understand what I'm trying to say, you won't get it. Other writers might even think 'well then you aren't really a writer. Writer's should always want to write.' But I don't believe that. There are a lot of things I LOVE that I don't constantly do. Personally, for me it's more that I want my writing to be perfect so I don't write anything because I know it's going to be crap. Well it won't get any better if I don't write, but my mind works in weird ways. It doesn't always listen to itself, even though it should.