A Ribbon, a Battle and a Vacation from Reality

Eclipse
Stephenie Meyer
629 pages

With ice in my heart, I watched him prepare to defend me. His intense concentration betrayed no hint of doubt, though he was outnumbered. I knew that we could expect no help - at this moment, his family was fighting for their lives just as surely as he was for ours.

Eclipse has to be my favorite so far in The Twilight Saga. This novel dealt mostly with the battle within Bella herself, allowing the reader inside her decisions, actions, and thoughts. Meyer has a signature way of capturing her reader, and holding them hostage within the pages of the book for the time it takes them to read it, as well as after they turn the final page...

The way I judge the greatness of a book though, is by how long it takes to come back to reality.

My only complaint of this book is again the fact that its highly climatic scene did not come until almost the very end, therefore, the scene was over in just a few pages or so.

Stephenie Meyer has again created a book just as intriguing, just as suspenseful, and maybe even more addicting than the first two.

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Review: SHATTER ME by Tahereh Mafi

SHATTER ME
by Tahereh Mafi
Hardcover, 352 pages

Published November 15th 2011 by Harper/HarperCollins

Placement in the Pile: Reaching New Heights (ALMOST top picks)

Summary:
The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

Review:
I really enjoyed this book. I thought Juliette's voice was spot on for someone who had lived her life basically untouched, and who suffered the lack of love in her past. She was on the border of crazy, and yet she made the most sense of all of the characters in the novel. The world was crazy.

At first I wasn't sure about the crossed out words. But in the end I thought it was a super unique writing style that gave you insight to the way we all not only edit what we say, but we edit our thoughts. It made Juliette even MORE real for me.

And I really connected to the romantic storyline, and her struggle to become free.

That all being said, the end was kind of a disappointment for me. All of a sudden this really unique girl in this dystopian world turned into a girl that's just one of many in a sci-fi world and gives us no closure at all.

However it's worth reading. It's a great book, and I'll try the second to see where it's going, even though it's going to be a totally different book to me.

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Thursday Three (6)

1) I need an MP3 player. My problem I hate earbuds. They HURT my ears physically make them ache. I've always had issues with this. I prefer standard earphones. But it sure would have been nice today at the dentist sitting in the chair for 2 hours to be listening to a book rather than my tooth being worked on.

2) I am missing my bookclub tonight and I am SO sad. There is something about a few hours with these awesome women talking about our favorite subject (books) and eating yummy treats that rejuvinates me each month!

3) If you've won a book from me recently know that I have NOT forgotten you. Life has been insane. If my mouth isn't pounding in pain tomorrow I plan on going to the post office to get them out to you! Do you ever have chores that need doing that just take forever to get to? Yeah. That's me right now with everything!

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Stephenie Meyer is Causing Me Sleep Deprivation

New Moon
Stephenie Meyer
563 pages

I knew we were both in mortal danger.
Still, in that instant I felt well. Whole.
I could feel my heart racing in my chest,
the blood pulsing hot and fast through my veins again.
My lungs filled deep with the sweet scent that came off his skin.
It was like there had never been a hole in my chest.
I was perfect - not healed, but as if
there had never been a wound in the first place.

Not even an hour ago, I flipped the last page in the second book of The Twilight Saga. This book did take me longer to read than the first not just because it was approximately 100 more pages, but because I was missing Edward. Yes, he does leave in this book, and in that time, Bella is in a state of miserable depression.

Meyer writes so well, her analogies between a "new moon" and the characters' feelings in the book are in-depth as well as puzzling, in a good way of course. Her characters and their relationships are so carefully crafted, the romance so perfectly limited, and the action so thrilling, readers (like myself) will find themselves reading way past their bedtime.

One negative (in a sea of positives) about this book is that the climatic scene is so far towards the end of the book, and it flies by between two or three chapters. There is so much rising action, that the middle of the book became a bit lacking for me.

Aside from that, New Moon will surely leave readers gasping for Eclipse.

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Thursday Three (5)

1) So here's one reason why I read more YA than adult fiction. Length. With so many books out there to read I prefer reading books that I can get through in a couple of days rather than a book twice or even three times as long that takes me a lot longer.

I know there are long YA's out there, and there are definitely some shorter adult fiction. But this is just one thing that generally pulls me away for adult books.

2) Reading on the computer gives me a headache. I really don't like it. I've heard Kindles and Nooks are better than a computer screen, but I still prefer paper. I love the feel of a book in my hand. The smell of the ink and the pages. I've always wanted a library in my home, and not one on a hard drive.

What do you think? If you have an e-reader has it changed your mind?

3) Unlike most bloggers out there I never said what I thought of The Hunger Games movie on here. So here is my short review! I loved it. I thought it was very well done. Were there issues? Yes. But overall I thought it was excellent.

And while we're talking about books turned into movies. I was so excited about a movie for Stephenie Meyer's THE HOST, but I just can't get into it yet. I don't like the casting for Melanie at all.



What do you think?

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498 Pages in 3 Days

Twilight
Stephanie Meyer
498 pages

I guess I am a bit behind the ball when it comes to reading the latest teen-novel sensation The Twilight Saga. It was the same thing with Harry Potter for me; not reading and falling in love with the entire series until three years ago.

I am not really a fantasy kind of person, (I was totally shocked to walk into Barnes and Noble and see an entire section dedicated to "Paranormal Teen Romance"), but I got kind of tired of friends asking me whether I was Team Jacob or Team Edward. I would usually answer, but only to myself of course with; "Is Team Weasley okay?" or "What about Team Peeta?"

So I gave in, and started the 498 page novel on Friday night; only putting it down at midnight and already on page 137. I finished it this morning (probably my fastest reading experience yet), and ran to the library as soon as it opened to check out New Moon, the second book in the series.

Overall, it totally surpassed my expectations (as I thought it would be a lot of dating drama, and cheesy vampire bites) but it was much more of than that. Here is a brief introduction:

Bella Swan has been living with her mother in Phoenix, AZ for most of her seventeen years. In the spring of her Junior year, she decides she is in need of a change and flies to Forks, WA to stay with her father. Upon her first day of school, she catches the eye of Edward Cullen; an incredibly pale boy with golden eyes and supernatural powers. Bella senses something different about him, and is determined to figure out what...

Meyer has crafted an irresistibly good novel; full of terror, pain, mystery and love that will surely have vampires creeping into your dreams at night.

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GoodReads, Independent Book Blogger Awards!

Hey everyone! I know I'm a little crazy, but I've decided to enter the GoodReads Independent Book Blogger Award contest to see if I can win a trip to BEA (Book Expo America)! It's been a DREAM of mine to go, and it would allow me to get some really awesome early books to review for you and to do some really great giveaways and posts!

So check it out, and please spread the word. We're a small blog, but this would be a dream come true!

Vote for this blog for the Independent Book Blogger Awards!

Vote

Voting is open now until Monday, April 23 at 11:59pm ET!

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EDENBROOKE Giveaway Winner!

I hope you all had a great weekend, whether you celebrate Easter or not. ;)

Today the festivities continue at our house with my daughter's 4th birthday. So I'm gonna make this quick.

Deb Cushman!

I will get the book in the mail sometime this week! Congrats. And for those of you who didn't win, EDENBROOKE can be purchased online, at all Utah Costcos, and Barnes and Noble everywhere (if it's not in stock they'll order it in for you!)

Enjoy!

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Reminder!

Today's the last day to enter the Edebrooke giveaway. And the first day of the last year of my 20's. Where did the time go?

;)

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The Movie vs. The Book: My Sister's Keeper

With a friend who has also read the book, we watched the movie version of the book My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult on Friday.

The movie was released in 2009, and some of the cast list is as follows:

Anna Fitzgerald - Abigail Breslin
Sara Fitzgerald - Cameron Diaz
Kate Fitzgerald - Sofia Vassilieva
Taylor Ambrose - Thomas Dekker
Campbell Alexander - Alec Baldwin

If I had not read the book, I would have liked this movie. The basic plotline was the same, but several of the key characters from the book were left out such as Julia Romano. Also, Kate, Anna, and Jesse looked too young when compared to how I pictured them. Several of the events were rushed and disjointed and the ending of the movie was also completely different than the book.

On the positive side, this movie was full of emotion. Some parts were very sad, and made me want to cry. While others, sparked laughter.

Again, this movie was great by itself, but when compared with the book, it did not reach my expectations.

Click here to read my review of the book, My Sister's Keeper

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