Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Book Haul!

GIVEAWAY: March!

Hey Guys,
So, March is almost here and you know what that means? Another giveaway!
I want to thank everyone that participated in my last one, and I hope you will again this month, it's nice to be able to give you guys something.
This month I am again giving away a book of your choice, so I hope you will enter and good luck to you all!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Until next time - happy reading ,
Helene

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Release Date: 1, August, 2009
Publisher: Scholastic
Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 390
Format: Paperback
Challenge: 70 Book Challenge



For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without. 
Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again.
Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.
Opening sentence: "I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves."
Review
This book was amazing. Simple as that. First off, the plot: it was very well structured, lead nicely from one point to the other. The twists and turns were perfect, keeping the story interesting and making you crave more. The storyline was so wonderful, I loved it!
The characters: they were so believeable, they were strong and well developed. I liked all the different characters, they were so diferent from eachother and that was nice, seeing how they complimented eachother in that way. The main characters, Grace and Sam were perfect, I loved each of them for diferent reasons, they completed each other in such a way that made them both very believeable. All the characters were believeable, when writing this novel the author managed to fit in all the typical high school characters, the jock, the mean girl, the quite shy guy and girl, the sort of uptight girl, it was great!
I loved the romance of this novel, the conflict, everything! It was amazing, I could not put it down it was just a really great read. Fast-paced and beautifully written, the writing was amazing I loved how it was simple, yet beautiful. The story had drive, I loved it, I can't tell you how much, I can't wait to check out the rest of the series. This book is certainly worth reading if you like werewolves, love and some amazing characters.
I loved it/it was amazing: 

Until next time - happy reading ♥,
Helene

Monday, February 27, 2012

Untraceable by S.R. Johannes



Release Date: November 23, 2011
Publisher: Coleman & Stott
Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 312
Format: Ebook
Challenge: 70 book challenge

16-year-old Grace has lived in the Smokies all her life, patrolling with her forest ranger father who taught her about wildlife, tracking, and wilderness survival.   
When her dad goes missing on a routine patrol, Grace refuses to believe he’s dead and fights the town authorities, tribal officials, and nature to find him. 
One day, while out tracking clues, Grace is rescued from danger by Mo, a hot guy with an intoxicating accent and a secret. As her feelings between him and her ex-boyfriend get muddled, Grace travels deep into the wilderness to escape and find her father.  
Along the way, Grace learns terrible secrets that sever relationships and lives. Soon she’s enmeshed in a web of conspiracy, deception, and murder. And it’s going to take a lot more than a compass and a motorcycle (named Lucifer) for this kick-butting heroine to save everything she loves.
Review 
Ok, where do I start.. This book took me forever to read, over a month, witch is something that never happens to me. I've been really busy so I have not had time to read anything other than school related things, but I usually still manage to read something, but with this book, that just didn't happen unfortunately.
The story has a very nice premise when you read the synopsis, it sound great, and I was really looking forward to reading it. Which might be some of the reason why I was disappointed by it. I felt that it just dragged on, and that the main character - Grace, only did one thing, tracing. I just got tired off all the constant tracing, I couldn't help it, I just felt that it was described in such detail that the story lost it's drive.

On the other hand the story had some aspects to it that I really enjoyed, I enjoyed the romance that came into the picture between Grace and a certain other character, it was sweet.
I did enjoy the mystery of the book, it was good, whenever you thought you knew what was going on there were twists that led you somewhere you'd never expected. Another plus where the characters, in particular Grace, she was strong and I love a strong heroin.
The book is a thriller, and that might be part of why I didn't love it, because it's not what I usually read, but at the same time, I have read some thrillers that I've loved, and this just wasn't that, unfortunatly. I know others have absoluty love this book, and that's good for them, but my opinion is that is wasn't for me and that's just how it is.

Overall the book was ok, not great, it had some aspects to it that I really enjoyed and I think it's still worth checking out, I would recommend borrowing it at a library or from a friend. The reason why I rated the book like I did was because I didn't really enjoy the beinning of it, that's my personal opinion and others might think diferently which I totally understand.

I liked it:

Until next time - happy reading ,
Helene

Thursday, February 16, 2012

AND THE WINNER IS...

Maya!

Congratulations, you won! If you could send me an e-mail at: areweinfiniteyet@hotmail.com, that would be great, so I can send you the book you would like. 

And to all the others that entered, thank you for entering and come back in a few weeks for another giveaway!

Love,
Helene

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Classic Pick of January: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde


Release Date: First published in 1890
Age Group: Adult

Pages: 219
Format: Ebook
Challenge: 70 book challenge



Synapsis
Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is one of his most popular works. Written in Wilde's characteristically dazzling manner, full of stinging epigrams and shrewd observations, the tale of Dorian Gray's moral disintegration caused something of a scandal when it first appeared in 1890. Wilde was attacked for his decadence and corrupting influence, and a few years later the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde's homosexual liaisons, trials that resulted in his imprisonment. Of the book's value as autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be--in other ages, perhaps."


Review
I don't really know what I expected when picking up this book, I was hoping it would be good, but other then that my expectations were not too high. I had to read it for English, we had to write a big paper on a book of our choice, correction, of a classic of our choice. I choose this because it seemed interesting and it was pretty short.


But it still took a while to read it, and I think the reason why is because of the language, it is written very differently from a modern-day literature, therefore it took a while ok, that's a lie, it took forever for me to get into it, but when I did I enjoyed it. The story was interesting and unique. There were a lot of descriptions, which I thought at times to be irrelevant, but also useful at times, as metaphors for what was happening in the particular scene. The language and writing was great, it flowed really well, and made the book better. Some of the quotes in the book were just beautiful, they were insightful and interesting. There are so many different aspects of this book. The way Wilde tells the story and dances around all these different subjects in such a wonderful manner is great, and I really enjoyed that aspect of it, it made the book come alive of sorts. This is just my personal opinion, and I could see why people might not like it, but I did.


I enjoyed the book, and it was much better than I had hoped it would be, which is a big plus. But because it took me so long to get through it, a little because of how much I have had to do lately and a little because it was for school, which always seems to make me less motivated, I have decided to give this book:

I liked it!

Until next time - Happy Reading!
PS. Remember to check out my giveaway in the post below!