Kaitlyn's Review: The Fault in Our Stars

Title: The Fault in Our Stars

Author: John Green

Pages: 318

Published: 2012

Summary: Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now. 

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. 

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

Review: 

It’s hard to imagine that some YA novel could sweep you off of your feet, especially when you approach a book with notions that I’ve already had.

John Green is a famous man; not only for his books, but for  all of Nerdfighteria, and ending world suck. I have read all of his preceding books, and while I loved each one individually, there is something about John Green I always ponder: Can he write something different? Everything he writes, he knows of. Situationally, at least. In his first four books, the main characters were scary similar (and in two of them, the love interests were as well). I was very, very wary when first approaching The Fault in Our Stars, because it was his first time writing from a girl’s perspective and he stated how hard and difficult it was.

When I first started TFIOS, I was hesitant. I didn’t like it at first. It was like stepping into a cold pool, one step at a time. I just wanted to get through it because oh goodness it was going to be the same and that’s not how girls think all the time, John Green!

But I was so wrong.

I cannot name a point in the novel, but at some point, there was a shift. There was a shift and I realised all the wonderful things I adore about John Green.

I love his metaphors. His ability to take situations or words or anything and give you a new perspective on them. And throughout this novel? That’s all that he did. Along with an original plot, there was so much symbolism. There were so many higher level metaphors, that are sure, spelt out for the reader, but that doesn’t make them any less brilliant. It doesn’t make the reader think less.

I really don’t know where to begin. I guess I’ll begin with the quality of the plot. It was unique. And, the reader is set up for something, but there is a huge, huge, huge twist. It’s like everything hits the reader at once. There were parts in the book when I was cursing this one character, wishing that they had never even bothered and that there was absolutely no one worse than them ever in the history of all things. And then there were parts when I was crying, sobbing really, because I just felt so many things and John Green has a magical way with words. It’s like a fantastical idea that hits you in such a real way you don’t even know what to think except it evoked so many emotions inside of you.

I can’t even properly say how much I liked this book. It’s just. It’s genius. Maybe the setting is what John Green knows and so are the characters, but hey, that doesn’t make it not brilliant. He writes amazingly.

The Fault in Our Stars is one of the rare, RARE books I would not mind rereading immediately. I feel like I have to, actually. There is only one other book that has ever made me feel that way…and well, that review is (hopefully!) coming soon.

TFIOS deserves every single star it’s getting. This star won’t go out. 

Rating:  ★★★★★ 5/5 Stars

Review: Tainted Blood

Title: Tainted Blood
Author: Sam C. Leonhard
Series: Tainted
Pages: 296
Published: 2010

Summary: Gabriel Jordan lives a lonely life on the streets, taking the rare job that usually means spending hours in the cold, waiting for a chance to take a photograph of a cheating spouse. That’s how he meets Dr. Aleksei Tennant—who he sees suspiciously jumping from a window of a woman’s apartment. Tennant introduces Gabriel to the hidden worlds, magical worlds connected to this one by portals. Gabriel is eager to learn the runes for opening them, Tennant is eager to teach, and a fragile friendship develops amidst a series of murders.

These aren’t just any murders. The killer has a grudge against the mixture of other races: he doesn't kill humans, only those of the hidden worlds who are producing children of tainted blood. When the killer attacks them directly, Gabriel and Tennant have to team up to find the murderer, even though they’re putting themselves, their love, and any chance at a future together, in danger.

Review: Before I say anything, I would like to thank Ariel from Dreamspinner Press for providing me with a copy of Tainted Blood when I foolishly requested the second novel without realising that it was part of a series.

Tainted Blood has caused me to nitpick a little bit with my rating, earning it a whole 3.75 stars, something that one would never see unless they were attempting to average a bunch of reviews. The novel was something that I really enjoyed reading, but it didn't quite earn four stars because of some of the less-wonderful points in the novel which mainly revolved around moments where Gabriel whined about the fact that he loved Dr. Tennant and the man would never feel the same way.

While stereotypes were called on when it came to this novel, Tainted Blood was a refreshing read and I really did enjoy it. The feistiness of Gabriel's personality and the way that Tennant was so intrigued by Gabriel and his magical wonders was surprisingly refreshing.

I really did enjoy the fact that not only did Gabriel find his way out of his homelessness and his crappy job of having to take pictures of people doing things like cheating on their spouses for his creepy boss, but he found someone that he fell in love with. The entire time I was rooting for Gabriel, waiting for him to find love in Tennant and the man to love him back. I honestly just wanted them to kiss.

But they definitely did much more than that. SPOILER: [This was my least favourite part of the book, and it has nothing to do with the overdose on sex in the one chapter of Tainted Blood. Fuck or Die options are something that I have never been a fan of in any style of writing and I personally find them to be something annoying, so I was highly disappointed to find that that was exactly what had to happen in Tainted Blood.] It was an intense read for someone who hadn't expected it to go from nothing to everything, but I won't lie and say that I didn't enjoy it. I just think it could have been toned down a little.

The end of the book was kind of awesome, and I expected it to take a different path, but was rather pleased that it didn't. I'm so used to what I predict in a novel coming true but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't the case and the ending made me appreciate the book a lot more that I had the knowledge that the author chose a different route from the typical.

I really did semi-love Tainted Blood and I would definitely read it again. Right now I'm reading the sequel and I can't wait to see what comes out of it!

Rating: ★★★★ 3.75 Stars

Review: Enchantment

Title: Enchantment
Author: Charlotte Abel
Pages: 373
Published: 2011

Summary: When Channie falls in love with Josh Abrim, a BMX racer with dangerous secrets of his own, she rebels against her parents and turns to dark and forbidden magic to break the chastity spell ... with disastrous results.

Review: In my honest opinion, this book doesn't even deserve the one star that it has received, but there is no lower rating on goodreads so one star it shall be. The narration was horrible, first off, and I hate to say this but this was a book that really, really needed to be in first person and was not.

The narrative, also, was written in southern twang, or at least it was attempted. It did get a little bit better once moving past the first chapter but when something is written in third person and is also written in southern twang and refers to characters in the way that one would refer to them if the novel were written in first person clearly proves that the author didn't know what she was doing when she was writing this.

I hate bashing authors and novels, because I know just how long it takes to get these words down into a story and how much editing and writing and revising goes into it, but in my honest opinion, this is a book that should have stayed on the laptop or typewriter or paper, depending on whatever it was that was being used to write this. I couldn't finish Enchantment or even come close. The novel was poorly written and was constructed with an unbelievable plot line, and unbelievable plot lines can be worked with when reasonably explained, but this novel didn't even have that.

I was sorely disappointed with this novel, which is saying something seeing as it was a novel that I requested to read because the plot sounded interesting and it has such good reviews. I just honestly cannot comprehend that I managed to get as far in the book that I did, and I don't believe that this will be a book that I will ever be picking up again, even to give it a second chance. It has scarred me for life.

Rating: ★ 1/5 Stars (Being Generous)

Review: Meeting Destiny

Title: Meeting Destiny
Author: Nancy Straight
Series: Destiny
Pages: Unknown
Published: 2010

Summary: Lauren is visited in her dreams for years by a stranger claiming to be her destiny. Destiny becomes reality when paths cross during a failed robbery attempt. Lauren and the stranger experience chemistry like no other and now her doubt over her long time relationship with her high school sweetheart is not her only secret…someone else knows about her keen intuition and sixth sense.A mysterious clairvoyant seeks Lauren out and tells her not only of her life now but what the future may hold. Soon Lauren is in the middle of a murder investigation and a questionable friendship with the key suspect. Law enforcement, friends and family are concerned for Lauren but unfortunately they are unaware of the true danger…Sinister forces are at work and will stop at nothing to destroy Lauren’s abilities.

Review: I honestly want to know if everyone else was reading the same book that I was, because that was horrible. I don't even have words for how bad this was other than the fact that I could actually manage to get over halfway in reading it, and that only was because I couldn't manage to find it in me to stop before I gave it more of a chance than I had.

First off, the only thing that was good was the opening scene because I honestly wanted to know what was happening. It's not often that a book starts off with something downright intriguing like a robbery, so I was sucked in at the opening scene, but after that I wanted to kill someone.

Love at first sight is something that people believe in and others don't, so it's not that's a topic that's never been heard of before, but this book had absolutely nothing to do with love at first sight. No, this was all about destiny and the author completely and utterly failed on multiple levels to manage to keep this from being a somewhat-entertaining novel.

Lauren was the most annoying character I've ever had the displeasure to meet, and everything was irrational and frustrating in her world. Her mom and her 'boyfriend', Seth, were just so irrational when it came to everything, and don't get me started on Max.

Oh, and the fact that Lauren's 'power' allowed her to irrationally stop a robber and a 'murderer' and get a ton of money from people and showered in thanks, that was really so irrational that it's not even funny. The author could have removed the first forty percent of the book, excluding the opening scene, and you wouldn't have missed anything. That's how long it took her to barely even explain what was so special about Lauren, and even then it was impossible and irrational.

Maybe on a rainy day, when there's absolutely nothing else to do and I'm stuck with just this book I'll finish it, but there is no way that I can even attempt to finish reading this novel. It's horrid.

Rating: ★ 1/5 Stars

Review: Anna and the French Kiss

Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Pages: 372
Published: 2010

Summary: Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.

As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss Anna - and readers - have long awaited?

Review: This was such an adorable book and I really wish that I could just curl up inside of it and live inside of Anna's and Etienne's world. I started it with the intention of liking the book by the end but not loving it, and I think I fell in love by the end of it all. Living in Paris and experiencing an entirely new world with a group of friends that are absolutely wonderful in their own quirky ways is something that I really wish I could do, and I was glad that I got the chance to experience it through Anna's eyes.

Moving to a new place is always a hard thing, and I can't even imagine having to move to an entire new country for my last year of high school, like Anna did, but at the same time it'd be an amazing experience to move to Paris for your senior year. I could relate to Anna the entire book, even though I've never been in her exact position. Her friends were all wonderful, and each one had their own positives and negatives. I really liked the fact that they just swooped in and took care of Anna, letting her into their group so easily.

But I loved Etienne. Dear god, Etienne St. Clair. I wanted him so very badly, and not even as a relationship. I just wanted to be his friend because he really was just a magical person. I loved his personality and I just wanted to ruin his relationship with his girlfriend the entire time because I hated her and I didn't even know much about her except that she abandoned her friends when she graduated.

Out of all of the characters, Josh was my favourite. I just loved him and wanted to be his best friend, because he just seemed like such a cool guy. I did despise Toph though, and Anna's best friend from home. It didn't matter that I understood the reasons behind what they'd done and that I shouldn't hate them as much as I did. I still hate them, but kudos to Stephanie Perkins for at least giving me reasons why I shouldn't.

All in all, I really loved this novel and I loved the ending. Just the mere fact that Anna and Etienne managed to figure out a way to foil Etienne's father's plans was just wonderful. I very much enjoyed the fact that Etienne and Anna ended up going to schools where they could be together in college and maybe for the rest of their lives...that was wonderful too.

I adored this book and I adored that this was initially written as a NaNo novel, because that just proves that NaNo, while being the most ridiculous time of the year, is also a time where magic comes alive through writing and creatively breaking brains. This is definitely a book that I will read again, and I can't wait until I do.

Rating: ★★★★ 4/5 Stars

Giveaway!

Head on over to Megan Curd's blog to enter her contest to win one of the following prizes!

Autographed Copy of BRIDGER

$10 Gift Card to Amazon

2 eCopies of BRIDGER and FORBIDDEN

2 e-ARCs of TRAITOR

Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Authors: John Green & David Levithan
Pages: 310
Published: 2010

Summary: One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

Review: I have to admit that I avoided reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson because of the hype that surrounds John Green. I've really never understood why he has such a following around him, and I couldn't be bothered to figure out, but when I purchased a copy of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, that basically sealed the deal that I had to find out.

The book wasn't that great. It wasn't even good, really, except for the end. God bless Tiny Cooper, because he was the only good part about the novel. Everything else was just blah blah blabity blah, and that's saying something. It's not that I didn't like each Will Grayson on their own. It's just that I found them more irksome than likable, and that's putting it nicely.

Also, I wanted to kill Maura, but not as much as I wanted to kill David Levithan's writing style. I get that the emo, depressed gay kid had to have some sort of uniqueness about him, but really, was it too much of a trouble to capitalise your I's? Really? Just because he's depressed doesn't mean that he has to have everything in lowercase, because I was honestly expecting him to start narrating in text speak. It was just annoying and that was the reason that it took me so disastrously long to read this book. If I hadn't had a free day to spend curled up with it, determined to finish it, there would have been no way that I would have finished Will Grayson, Will Grayson in under a year. Well...month.

As I was saying before, God Bless Tiny Cooper. He was honestly the only good part of the book, and the whole concept of Tiny was just genius. The ending was the best part and is the only reason I could be bothered to give this book a three star review, because had it not been for Tiny and the end of the book, this might have been a one star review, or it might not have even been reviewed because the book would have been a forever unfinished novel sitting on my bookshelf, collecting dust until it ended up at Goodwill or sold to the next willing customer on Amazon.

It's not that I hated the book as much as it was just such a stereotypical annoyance of untimely doom, and that's all I have to say on the matter.

God. Bless. Tiny. Cooper.

Rating: ★★★ 3/5 Stars

Kaitlyn's Review: Incarnate

Title: Incarnate 
Author: Jodi Meadows
Series: Newsoul
Pages: 384
Published: January 31, 2011

Summary:
NEWSOUL

Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

NOSOUL

Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

HEART

Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?


Review: 
There are a lot of feelings about this book that I have. Rhee recommended me this book (not so much recommend as told me to read it or she would disown me) but as soon as I started it, I loved it. Immediately the reader is thrown into the perspective of Ana, who is the only "newsoul" in a world of people who have been born and born again (and can remember their past lives) for about 5,000 years. The mere concept is intriguing, and I had decided by page two I would finish the book no matter what because I wanted to see how a world like this would work. 


One thing that I find is outstanding about the book is the fact that I didn't end up hating Ana. In fact, I love her as a main character. I tend to find other favorites in books-side characters. Usually, especially in first person from one perspective and entire book, I find it burdensome. You realize all the flaws in a character and you want to smack them when they keep going on, and on, and on about something. While Ana does a lot of "I am a nosoul therefore I am meaningless and everyone hates me" especially in the beginning, she has a legitimate reason and I allowed it to not bother me too much. 


On the same note, she grows with the story. She is a dynamic main character, which is essential. She learns and the reader learns with her. It is a brilliant growth and I loved seeing it happen with each page turn. I also loved that when push came to shove with the romance in the book, she didn't just jump into it like many characters in YA novels do. Even though the person she had feelings for approached her, given the circumstances, she told him they needed to step back and not even talk about it right then. I literally cheered when she did that, because it was so different, and I adored it. At that moment, I was in love with the book even more. 


The only thing I personally dislike about the book is a small irk that won't make much sense to anyone who hasn't read it yet, but I dislike that near the end, an antagonist says he's doing things in the name of science. I am a big believer in science and the wonders and how vital it is to humans, and the direct jab that this author (while intentional or not) took at it did make me a bit frustrated. It took science's real purpose and twisted it into something horrifically evil. But I realize that was not probably the intention of the author at all, so I pushed my opinions on that aside and decided that the character was just crazy. 


There are many other reasons I loved--adored--the book. So many parts made me laugh and smile. I couldn't stop reading it. I haven't been much in a reading mood since the new year, but this book had me ignoring my friends and I just couldn't stop and put it down. I plan on buying the book when it is actually released (in order to support an author and a book I love) and I plan  on pre-ordering the next in the series when it comes out. 


Rating: ★★★★★ 5/5 Stars