Sunday 23 October 2016

"The Ghost Files (The Ghost FIles #1)" Book Review




My Rating ★★★★☆ 4 Stars

What a pleasant surprise!

I’ve had this book sitting in my kindle library for the past year collecting cyber dust.

I loved(ish) the tone of the narrator.

The plot was even better – a girl seeing dead people and is helping to solve a string of deaths of which her foster sister is a victim.

I really liked the book! I only knocked off 1 star because of the relationship between the main character and a certain secondary character of the law.


I won’t go into details here. No sirree. Find out for yourself J  

Sunday 16 October 2016

"How to Make Out" Book Review


My Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 2 Stars


An awesome premise with a less than awesome delivery.

Initially I was drawn to this book because of its title “How to make out”. I was instantly intrigued and wanted to know what this book could possibly be about. At first I had no intention of reading it; I simply wanted to get an idea of the plot, but after reading the summary, it sounded like a fun and witty, quick-read. I love the idea of neighbours falling for each other – 'Drive me Crazy' featuring Melissa Joan Hart, 'Its a Boy Girl Thing', Love and Basketball etc. and I wanted to love this one.

I didn’t expect a deep plot with riveting characters and profound, complex emotional connections but I did expect an entertaining delivery. What I got was a shallow, petulant character – Renley – who is pretty much useless in all aspects of life except in long division and ogling the few male “friends” she has in her life.

Her relationships are quite superficial, which is a sad thing for a teenage girl growing up. The only consolation I found in this was that this was purely a work of fiction, and this Renley and her situation does not exist in real life.

Her relationship with her father is pretty non-existent, almost as much as her relationship with her mother. Her father is simply a person in her life who provides her with food and shelter – basic necessities of life, and in return she is insolent.

Her mother, living in New York with her new family, does not have the audacity to contact her daughter, to make sure she is okay or to find out if this easily-influenced teenage girl is growing up into a respectable woman. Not once in the book did she reach out to ask her if she needs a mother figure to give advice on the many social issues that teenagers face these days. I was very disappointment in that aspect of the book -a mother who abandons her daughter and ignores said daughter even though she constantly reaches out to her to just hear her voice or to simply receive a message in return.

Her relationship with April, her best friend, felt like a filler. From my perspective, her role in the story was to fill the time when Renley was not thinking/being with Drew or Seth. Not once did their relationship feel real, and this was further proven when later on in the book Renley forgave Drew much quicker and easily for doing something far more hurtful to her than April did.

Her relationship with Drew was the highlight of the book. He was supportive and was a shoulder to cry on but he was a bit too persistent in his attempts at getting Renley and as a result it came off as annoying. Renley, however, loved the attention she got from Drew.

Her relationship with Seth? Purely lust. Nothing more, nothing less.


I think this book is best suited for the younger audiences, not adults who like reading YA now and then.

Friday 7 October 2016

"Cured (Stung #2)" Book Review

My Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3 Stars

I was hoping this one would be better, and in a way it was. I kinda wish I knew beforehand that I'd be reading from Jacqui's POV. I was really confused when reading the first few pages, trying to figure out who these characters were.

As for the plot itself, it was fairly simply, everything worked out happily ever after.

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Why is Jonah being treated like a Hodor? Like he's the muscles behind the whole operation with no feelings? He got hurt a lot in this book, more than I dare to count, and it's being justified by the fact that he heals quickly.
I hated this.

Do the women in this book not use their brain and try to see who is there before attacking?

Book 1: Fiona shot Bowen before making sure who was approaching.

Book 2: Jack stabs Kevin before using her head and seeing who is there. Yes, I get that he practically jumped on her in the dark so she had no idea that he wasn't a real threat at first, but my God! Stop and think before attacking. Same happened in the prison, she attacks Jonah before seeing who is really there. And I think she almost attacked Kevin a second time

Oh well. I'm happy this doesn't have a third part. It felt like a very shallow book which had potential but didn't deliver.
I still did not get to see what living on the inside of the wall is like, what their rebuilding looks like.
So much potential.

Wednesday 5 October 2016

"Stung (Stung #1)" Book Review


My Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 2 Stars

I can't figure out why exactly I disliked this book. I'm a fan of the post-apocalyptic genre but this one just didn't do it for me. 
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The main character - Fiona - was a bit weak. Not knowing what was going on with the world she woke up to was understandable. 

I guess I wanted to see her on her own for a while, surviving and toughening up, but this book did not deliver that. I didn't even get a glimpse of life inside the wall, to see how they're rebuilding society.

From the moment she woke up there were other humans around. She was "rescued" by an infected, then shortly after taken into a camp where she was protected by a guard who happens to have been her neighbor before the world went to shit. For the remainder of the book is she always being rescued and not fending for herself (which is what I really enjoy in a post apocalyptic book. I like reading about their survival skills, how they strategize on supply runs, how they out maneuver the enemy etc.). I'll read the second book only because I want to see where the love interest takes us and what life inside the wall is like.

UPDATE: 
On second thought I'm not that interested in Book 2. Won't be reading it.

Ugh fine. I'll read it just so I won't feel guilty.