Category: Book Reviews

Either while reading the book or after I have read the book I will put my own review of how I thought the book was.

Book Reviews, Uncategorized

Burned by P.C. and Kristin Cast (House of NIght Series 7)

India

Burned by P.C. and Kristin Cast starts off exactly where we left off with Zoey Redbird and her group of friends. Zoey has just witnessed the death of the love of her life by Kalona and in a spite of rage and defense, she throws all of her spirit energy at Kalona and in turn splits apart her soul. What would seem like death is not a true death, but a part of her does die inside. Zoey’s broken soul is then sent to a sort of purgatory in Nyx’s realm where it is up to her and Keith, who is actually dead, to try and help her get back. During this adventure in Nyx’s world, Stevie Rae is having to grow into her roll of a high priestess for the red fledglings and also into her feelings for the fallen Raven Mocker. While Stevie Rae and Zoey are doing what is needed for them, Aphrodite, Stark, and the “nerd herd” are doing everything possible to make sure Zoey’s spirit makes it back into her body safely, so that Zoey remains alive. If she doesn’t there is nothing but impending doom for the rest of the world.
In each of the students separate adventures each individual student is coming into their own strengths and finding out more about themselves than they could ever imagine. Stevie Rae is learning the importance of being a leader and how not always the best choice is the favored one. Aphrodite is learning that even though she is no longer a vampyre, her gifts are still with her as a prophetess of Nyx, and is learning how to further use those powers to do more. Stark is learning what it truly means to be a warrior for Zoey and how much sacrifice it’s going to take for someone he loves. The so-called “nerd herd” is using their talents of being able to work together to find out pertinent information to save Zoey. Last but not least, Keith. Though Keith is dead, and he knows it, he is still madly in love with Zoey to know that he has to make the ultimate sacrifice to help Zoey get back to where she needs to be.
Though I believe somewhere in the middle of the series before this one the books kind of fell off, but the need to keep reading them was still there. This one really picked it back up for me. It could also have been that I took a break from them instead of reading one a week. This book, Burned,  got back to the true meaning of young people doing extraordinary things to help out others and I was really excited that I picked it up again. I definitely recommend people to keep reading them because they keep getting better and better and I will do my best to continue to read them as well.
Until Next Time,
Keep Turning the pages
90s Born Reader

Book Reviews, Uncategorized

Breathless by Jessica Warman

India

Breathless by Jessica Warman was a good story to read over my holiday vacation. Warman does a great job of telling the story of a girl who is trying to find herself in a life where her family doesn’t understand her, she’s constantly loosing her brother mentally and physically, and she’s being forced to deal with all of it by herself. It is only in the solace of swimming that she finds peace.

When Katie Kitrell’s life suddenly spins out of control she has no idea how to truly grasp what is happening. Her brother, the only person in the house who she really connected with has started displaying some types of mental illness, which her parents don’t want to talk about. Her dad, a psychiatrist, and her mother, a house wife and an alcoholic try to pretend that everything is okay. It’s when her brother is pushed over the edge, sneaks out of the house, runs to a neighbors, and tries to kill himself that their parents decide to do something. Only what they do does not help Katie other than try to hide her from what is really happening. They ship her off to boarding school. It is there she decides to claim her brother is dead and try to make true friends, but that lie sticks with her.

Katie joins the swim team and an already amazing swimmer becomes better and finds her first true love. As Katie continues to go through high school, she finds love, friendship,but the horrors of her past continue to stick with her.

Keep turning the pages,

90s Born Reader

Book Reviews, Uncategorized

Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin

India

I know it has been forever since I did my last post. Well today I finally finished Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. These ladies do a wonderful job of telling the reader how to eat healthy and why he or she should do it. In each chapter they tell you about the meat industry, the dairy industry, and of course our government and how they put the blinders on the nation on what is truly healthy for you. With their provocative language, graphic images, and compartmentalized chapters it makes it easy to understand and to read. All of it leading up to how we can change our lives, which to me is the best part about it. A lot of people tell you what you shouldn’t eat and why you shouldn’t, but they rarely tell you what you should eat, why, and where it can be found. They also continue to break down the foods and supplements that should be avoided if you want to try and shop on your own.

I thought that being a college student that eating like this would be so difficult because a lot of it involves cooking. What I have found out is a lot of can be bought like other things in the frozen food section, which makes me ecstatic because that means I can eat it when I have the time. Also because they do such a good job of writing out for me what I should eat, I’m able to take the list into a grocery store with me and make my decisions from there. I think that they do a very good job and people should really take the time to read their book to try and not only for the knowledge, but to try and live a healthier lifestyle as well..

With this book I have also bought Skinny Bitch in the Kitch which is a cookbook that they have put together including all the substitute ingredients and an important thing to me is that I’m still able to bake! There are healthy ways to enjoy chocolate cake and cheesecake and I plan on experimenting with it.

Book Reviews, Uncategorized

The Help: Movie vs. Book

India

I already did a post talking about The Help and what the book is about, but this is one is to compare the movie and the book.

Once again I read the book before I went to the movie, but this time with a bit more separation in between. I think that the makers of The Help the movie did a very good job of staying close to the book without it changing a lot of other notions.
The only complaint that I had with the movie was that it took out some of the hard core matters that dealt with the African American community, like the murders, or Louvenia’s grandson, but most importantly with Constantine’s daughter. In the movie they made her black. That was a huge story in the book of how Constantine’s daughter was born with white skin, and that’s why she had to be sent away to Chicago. It was then her arrival to the Flinn’s house where she confused everyone into thinking she was white was how Constantine lost her job. Of course all of that was in a nutshell, but in the book it is a pretty big deal, and it was a constant question on Skeeter’s mind of why Constantine was fired, or quit, as put by her mother.
I was overall pleased with the movie, but it was just that giant miswrite that to me made it not an amazing movie, and one to truly rant and rave about. Until next time,
Keep turning the pages
90s Born Reader
Book Reviews, Uncategorized

Red Riding Hood, Sarah Blakely-Cartwright

India
Grandma, what big eyes you have!
The better to see you with my dear…
Grandma, what big ears you have!
The better to hear you with my dear…
Grandma, what big teeth you have!
The better to EAT YOU WITH my dear!

Sarah Blakley-Cartwright’s Red Riding Hood brings us down from the fairy tale world and back to where the original story of all of our beloved story time memories come from. Blakley-Cartwright puts a dark twist on the story of Little Red Riding Hood while also making it a love story. Valerie, Red Riding Hood, is caught in the middle of a love triangle she has a man who she is in love with, a man who is in love with her, and then the wolf who wants her. In her small village, terror strikes along with death as the werewolf attacks her sister, killing her as the first human victim. As the village wants revenge the hunt for the werewolf comes to the forefront of everyone’s mind. The only problem for Valerie is that her and the werewolf have a bond that makes the werewolf want Valerie without remorse. Because of this Valerie has to make a decision of who to be married to or who to spend the rest of her life with.

After I finished this…in one day, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about the book. It was great at bringing out the suspense and making the reader suspicious of all the characters to who the werewolf could possibly be, but in the end I was left unsatisfied and wanting to know more, and did not get my answers. I have not seen the movie, so I cannot make a comparison to the two, but it definitely grounds you to how the original fairy tales were told children, and not the sugar coated versions we tell today. Until next time.
Keep Turning the Pages,
90s Born Reader