March Book Haul

Last month has been crazy! I didn't even have the time to read a lot... Two books... In a whole month... I am ashamed of myself! You already have my review of "Vic Mongol" and currently I'm reading "Loving mr. Darcy" by Sharon Lathan. I hope I'll finish this book before the end of this week. It's like a super slow read! Aaargh! 

This lack of time didn't hold me back from buying books though. Luckily! I stille have a huge TBR pile in my room after I went to a Book Outlet a few months ago, but I'm going to ignore that for a while. I'll show those outlet books to you later. I promise!

Because I'm currently into Booktube (I LOVE IT), you'll probably recognize the books I've bought and ordered this month. They're books everybody on Youtube is raving about, so they made me a little curious. Some of these books should have been on my shelves long before now, but I finally bought them. 

Here they are (I'm super excited about all of them!) 


1. John Green - The fault in our stars (couldn't stay behind!)
2. Rachel Gibson - Run to you
3. Markus Zusak - The Book Thief
3. Rainbow Rowell - Fangirl (ordered, still waiting for it)
4. Rainbow Rowell - Attachments (ordered, still waiting for it)

I have to say I really hate this cover of "Run to you"... I have another one (it isn't pretty either, but it's better than this one). The cover of "The Book Thief" isn't my favorite one either, but they only had this copy in my bookstore and I didn't wan't to wait for another one.

I'm looking forward to read all these books, but I have to read some others first. Finally I can start my two weeks of freedom! READING!

Review "Vic Mongol"

Some information

Title: Vic Mongol

Author: Jerry Gill

Pages: 162

Published: January 2014

Publisher: Ann\Darrow#company

My Scource: author (thank you!)

My Score on Goodreads: 2 stars 

Blurb

Since man has been man, those called wise in every generation and culture have declared that true love never dies. There must be a reason they keep saying this. 

A merciless, agonizing memory can sometimes break a person and render them incapable of facing even the commonplace without being unnerved. Then sometimes it will forge a person into something more than human, a figure of near super human ability who can take action in even the most savage of circumstances.

Victoria Custer remembered how she and the one to whom she vowed her eternal love were buried by mountains and swallowed by the sea. That painful, frightening memory from a thousand generations past has forged her into something more than she was and has emboldened her with unrelenting purpose. Now, as Vic Challenger, she will confront even the grimmest peril and will venture into situations so horrible they make the bravest of men cower and weep for their mother. Vic has embarked against all odds on an epic quest that may last a lifetime and on any day could bring violent death. She has learned from her mysterious avatar Nat-ul, even when you face the gravest of threats, you need not be brave, you just need to do what needs done, for no matter how dire the circumstances, “It’s not hard. It’s just living.”

Nothing short of death will stop Vic. And even death itself seems to have failed at least once.

It’s the Fall of 1920 and Vic Challenger and her friend Lin Li have gone to Mongolia. They thought they were prepared for anything but doom begins to hound them, in the form of Hung-hu-tzes, White Russians, and hellish creatures that stalk them from underground. This is Lin's first trip with Vic but will it also be her last? They both have to wonder how this trip will end...

Review

Writing a book isn't easy, neither is writing a review about it. Sometimes you just don't know what to think about something you've read. For me that's the case with this book "Vic Mongol". I didn't know what to expect after reading the text on the cover. I also was a little scared because it's the second book about this main character, Vic, and I haven't read the first one. Always dangerous... I read the book nevertheless and now I'm sitting here and I don't know what to write about it.

The main thing that confuses me is the fact there seem to be many little unimportant stories in this book. We have a main character who's on a sort of quest in her life. We see her leaving for a trip to the other side of the world, hoping to find the person she's looking for. The one who can make her life complete. The curiosity is that this quest always seems to be put in the second place. Vic always gets in big trouble and instead of dealing with those things as quickly as possible, she always ends up putting these trouble central in her life. Where has her quest gone? Why doesn't she put more effort in finding that important person? Her whole life is dedicated to that mysterious person, but it seems to be easy to forget about him and end up looking for the murderer of an old lady she doesn't know of getting involved in political matters in Mongolia. Most of the time this just didn't make sense to me.

Who is this "Vic"? Victoria Custer, a.k.a. Vic Challenger, is a young reporter. She loves to travel around the world, take pictures of the amazing things around her and write controversial articles about them. Vic looks like a normal girl, a girly girl even, but she's everything but that. Vic has some sort of alter ego, Nat-ul. In her dreams Vic can communicate with this girl who lived more than a thousand years ago. Everything makes her believe she once was that person and is now reincarnated in a new human being. Nat-ul was in love with Nu, the son of Nu. A great warrior who returned her love and killed the biggest wild cat in the world to show her his love. Sadly Nu was killed after a giant earthquake. The cave he hid in, collapsed and he died. Nat-ul didn't survive this earthquake either but her soul keeps on searching her lover. Her soul which lives on in Vic Challenger.

Apart from Vic we also have some other characters in the book, but we don't get to know them very well. This is one of the things I didn't like about this story. Sometimes all of our characters and the crazy situations they were in, just became a big blur. Also the frequent hunting on animals, the unbelieveable situations and the supernatural creatures made me sigh more than once. Further there were a lot of indistinct descriptions of crazy situations. 

All these things set apart, this could be a good book for people who like this writing style, this genre and this kind of stories. 

Review "The Trouble with Valentine's Day"

Some information

Title: The Trouble with Valentine's Day

Author: Rachel Gibson

Pages: 368

Published: January 2005

Publisher: Avon

My Scource: gift

My score on Goodreads: 5 stars

Covertext

Dumped by her boyfriend, stressed out by her job, Kate Hamilton needs to regroup and get back some self-esteem. She moves from the bright lights of Las Vegas to the wilderness of Gospel, Idaho for some small-town fun. But when her first attempted seduction of a hunky stranger is completely rejected, she wonders what else could possibly go wrong?

Well, for starters she quickly realizes that the Mountain Mama Crafters Original Poetry reading is about as good as it gets on a Friday night. Then she comes face to face with Rob Sutter, former ice hockey madman, owner of Sutter's Sports—and the hunky stranger who told her to get lost!

Rob's been more than burned by love—but then he and Kate find themselves in an ultra-compromising position in the M & S Market after-hours, giveing the phrase "clean-up in aisle five" a whole new meaning, and cause a whole lot of gossip in Gospel...

My short review

I don't know if this book is my favorite written by Rachel Gibson, but I liked it a lot! The characters in "The troube with Valentine's Day" are really great and very credible. The story is written in a way you keep on wondering what will happen even though you secretly know how it will all end. I never get tired of reading Gibsons books. In every single one of them the same things happen againts a slightly different background, but that doesn't matter. She knows how to keep her readers entertained and that's all I need in a chick lit book. Loved it and hope you'll love it too. I can't wait to start the other books in this series...

Review "Playing the Part"

Some information

Title: Playing the Part

Author: Darcy Daniel

Pages: 179

Published: February 2013

Publisher: Carina Press

My scource: The author (thank you!)

My score on Goodreads: 5 stars!

Covertext

Anthea Cane is a successful actress—well, action star. Her films are mostly about how hot she looks silhouetted by fiery explosions. But Anthea is determined to prove she's more than just a body. With the role of a lifetime up for grabs—a serious adaptation of her favorite novel—Anthea sets off to her small hometown in the name of research.

Cole Daniel is a blind farmer with no patience for divas, especially one who mercilessly teased him as a young boy. When Anthea shows up using a fake name and pestering him into letting her stay, he can't pass up the opportunity to torment her just a little.

But Anthea won't let the stubborn farmer deter her from her goal, even if he is hotter than any man she's ever met. Cole finds his form of payback less than satisfying when Anthea keeps turning the tables on him, proving her mettle and gaining his respect. Will Anthea's research land her a man, as well as the part?

My review

When I pick up a chick lit book I always hope to find another kind of story. Something I didn't already read in four different books with different characters in the same situation. Darcy Daniel did a great job writing "Playing the Part". She managed to offer her readers a beautiful and sweet story without repeating one. Her characters were very real to me and I really loved them though they weren't always shining and on their best behaviour.

In this book we meet Anthea, a movie star without big roles behind her name. She's only asked for action movies where her looks can be used. For a long time she just didn't care about this, but when she wants a role in a movie adaptation of her (passed away) mothers favorite book and nobody believes she can do it, she starts to reconsider her career. Is this everything her life will ever be? Are people only "liking" her because of how she looks? Don't they believe she has some kind of depth? Apparantly not and this bothers Anthea above anything. 

She decides to demand an audition for the role and to do some research. The movie she wants to play in "The Farmers wife" is set in the country. Where would she do her research best? In Mayfield, the town she lived in when she was younger. 

In this town she meets Cole, a handsome, blind farmer she bullied in school. Thing is Anthea needs him to do her research. He's a farmer and she needs to know what it feels like to be a farmers wife... Would be great if she could use him or euhm "work together" with him... Because she knows Cole wouldn't welcome her with open arms, she invents a fake name and lies to him... Luckily these lies can't keep her from falling in love with him... madly... 

In this book you see the evolution of two people who dislike each other a lot to two people who want to care for and love each other 'till eternity... Darcy Daniel describes the feelings of these characters very very well and gives you the feeling you're out there in the field too. I also liked the sometimes detailed descriptions of little things in life. This made me connect even more with Cole. For this blind man, details are very important. Even the once superficial Anthea starts to get this and she learns to appreciate the little things in life. She completely transforms from a selfish star to a loving and caring woman who puts Cole in the first place. 

This really is a story that makes you smile. For me it might have been a little longer ;) I read it in one day and regretted that it came to an end...

Review "Suicide Game"

Some information

Title: Suicide Game

Author: Haidji

Pages: 358

Published: October 2013

Publisher: Createspace

My scource: Author (thank you!)

My score on Goodreads: 4 stars

Covertext

Eight thousand candidates sign up for the Suicide Game. Only one can win. Their destination: the Night Stadium, a place of makeup and music, fear and adrenaline, blood and romance, celebration and death.

Each candidate has his or her own reason for entering the Game. The Council runs the Game. The outcome of the Game is left to fate...in the laps of the gods. The candidates will jump to their deaths in order to win everything, before capacity crowds in the Stadium. The public follows every jump, live on TV and on their mobile screens, choosing their favorite candidates and betting on their lives. 

The Game’s community also includes geeks, mafia, makeup artists, master chefs, models, musicians, ordinary workers, spies, terrorists, and many others. SG - Suicide Game is the story of the candidates’ journey. It boldly imagines a place where death and denial are interwoven with hope, choices and the innate desire for happiness. Impressive in the totality of its vision, it is an exploration of the best and worst things in our lives, nightmares and especially, our dreams.

My review

Strange title, strange story, not my genre at all,... I didn't think I would like this book the way I did. Can't say I completely changed my mind. For me, it's still a strange book with a very odd theme. On the other hand I believe it could be refreshing to read this kind of story. A book about a Game where people choose to commit suicide before the eyes of thousands of people is one of a kind. It's possible you're offended by this story, but author Haidji dares to write it down for us and we should appreciate that!

It's not because the author dared to write this kind of story I gave "Suicide Game" 4 stars. It's because of the messages hidden in the book. Haidji shows us some people who were let down by society. People who don't want to live anymore or are prepared to offer their lives for others. Second of all I liked the writing style. Though this was not my genre at all, I wanted to know what would happen next and kept on reading. It's a style that drags you along. 

One thing I didn't like was the repeated "intro" of the Game. Every step of the Game a hostess cheers on the people who are ready to jump and at the same time she tries to spread enthusiasm. Every step of the Game is consequently accompanied by the exact same words and this started to bother me after a while. 

Another thing I would have changed if I could was the Game itself. This Suicide Game could be called "Jump Game" too. There isn't much variation in the way the contestants test their luck.

Suicide Game puts you to thinking about our society. What if... ? What if this kind of Games where people commit suicide to entertain others would be accepted in our world? I think I would be indignant! In this Game the public pays a lot of money to see people die. They bet on who's going to survive and who isn't. They buy T-shirts with the Suicide Game symbol on them, eat suicide dogs, clap when big groups of people face death,... It's horrific! The contradiction in this game is that after a while the public starts to care for the contestants. They don't want their favorites to die, they cry when they see who's behind the candidate. A human being of flesh and blood. The public starts to realise they could be on the other side of the Game too. Maybe one day they will wake up disappointed in society too or they will see they have nobody in their life to rely on... That's the day they could enter the Suicide Game too and when that day arrives they wouldn't be clapping during every jump. They would be scared... 

I hope that everybody who's willing to read this book will start to think about it like I did and love it.

Review "Dawn at Last"

Some information

Title: Dawn at Last

Author: Lawrence Grodecki

Pages: 251 (e-book)

Published: September 2013

Publisher: Lawrence Grodecki

My Source: author (thank you!)

My Score on Goodreads: 3 stars

Covertext

A smart and sexy romance, perhaps the kind your mother doesn't want you to know? Chances are she will love it too, even though this is definitely not old school shenanigans!

Secrets deeper than the Seven Seas . . . 

Modern day Victoria, BC sets the stage for Donna Belauche, a professional intimacy counselor who keeps her client list short and her list of friends shorter. Life is far from fun and games for Donna. In her quiet time, it is not her work that brings her to the brink of madness. It’s the weight of her past – so many deep secrets – almost crushing her. Holding love at arm’s length, she pushes men away, even one who especially adores her.

"That's when she wrote in her journal, 'genuinely kind and charming,' but next to that she added 'perhaps a little dangerous…be very careful.'"

Making Dali Blush 

As she pushes love away, Donna devotes her free time to the pursuit of a different kind of passion - a hobby involving tulips, a creative exploration of women – an exploration of what some call sinful, and yet others divine. She is not alone in this project. She and her partners do it all in the name of art . . . but have they taken it all too far?

"As wonderful as it seemed, still is it even okay, or was it all just decadence? Yet such a sweet decadence, as fresh as the first drop of honey."

It's funny how it works when love's at play. 

Some say this book is controversial because of its characters - interracial relationships, unconventional pasts, and affairs between lady friends who are oblivious to the label, "lesbian romance". They see nothing unusual in any of it. For them it is just how they live. There is Ben, the house painter who will paint most anything, and a server named Sunni, with a thing for buns. Along with three others, they manage to help Donna find her way, almost in spite of themselves. They don't realize how important each is to the other, especially to Donna, as she scratches away at the ties that bind her.

Untwisting the Night Away 

The lives of these misfits twist together like vines - never knowing exactly where they will wind up. Through all the intertwining, love offers up one amusing surprise after another. Then, on one final night - three men and three ladies - everything finally comes together. Lives are changed forever . . . but for the better? How does one ever really know? At last, is it ever just about love?

My review

Hmmm difficult one... The author of this book, Lawrence Grodecki, is a great and kind person and I wish I could say that this book was great too, but it wasn't completely my kind of thing. 

The story itself was pretty good. I liked the idea and the plot development was worked out very well. In "Dawn at Last" we meet a lot of people who are connected to each other in one way or another. The thing is most of them don't know they are connected to so many people around them. The main thing that brings them all together is a secret art project hosted by Charles Lartimer. He and his two companions, Pierre and Donna, have created something like an art heaven on earth (this is how they see it). They'd like to keep it a secret because it needs to be exclusive and they sometimes do things that aren't respected by "normal" people.

It's impossible for me to give you the whole plot without giving away spoilers.

Why wasn't the story my kind of thing? I don't know. Maybe I didn't believe the characters. Sometimes they all seemed so unreal to me I couldn't see them as actual "people". Maybe all the long dialogues and descriptions started to get on my nerves. You can sense the author wants to learn us a lot of lessons. He wants to share a lot of wisdom with us, but all these things don't come across (for me that is) as he would like it. Maybe it all seemed too far-fetched at times. I just don't know. 

Some people would blame the story, but I liked the story itself. I can't blame a thing. It's just that generally the book didn't seem to please me. Did I have expectations that were too high? It's possible. 

The strange thing is that, if I can ever read the sequel, I will do it with pleasure. Though it wasn't completely my genre, I would like to know how these characters develop. Maybe they get more real once you really get to know them and once you see them grow. 

The fact I didn't like this book as much as I wanted to, shouldn't keep you from reading it. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this kind of book. I really don't know.

Review "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children"

Some information

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Author: Ransom Riggs

Pages: 382

Published: 2011

Publisher: Quirk Books

My Source: ECI Belgium

My Score on Goodreads: 5 stars

Covertext

A horrific family tragedy sends Jacob 16 to a remote island off Wales, to the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, where he finds unusual old photographs. The children, one his grandfather, were more than peculiar, perhaps dangerous, quarantined for good reason - and maybe still alive.

My review

A peculiar book about a group of peculiar children living in a peculiar place. I loved reading this book, though I wasn't sure what to expect. I bought it because I liked the idea of a story interwoven with strange pictures. Normally I don't like a book with drawings or pictures in it. They keep you from being creative and give you a certain idea about what everyone looks like. Here this wasn't the case! The pictures are only suggestive and so strange you don't always know what you see exactly. They help the author's descriptions to come to live and give an extra dimension to everything. 

In "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" Ransom Riggs tells a story that made me think of Harry Potter, Twilight and The Golden Compass. Books I liked to read when I was younger, but still love to read now. It's a mixture of strange things happening, new friends to be found, old friends to be left behind, memories to make, choices to make,... In short it's the story about Jacob Portman's ordinary life turning into a peculiar one. The story about a young boy who grows up in just a few days/weeks. The story about a boy finding his life purpose... On the way Jacob also discovers what true friendship and love feel like. Things he never experienced before.

When Jacob's grandfather, Abe, dies in strange circumstances, the 16 y.o. boy doesn't know what to do with his own thoughts. His grandfather used to tell him the most bizarre stories about "gifted" children. He even showed pictures of them. Jacob stopped believing his grandfather when he became older because his friends at school used to laugh with the unbelievable stories he told them. Abe also told him he used to live with these peculiar children on an island near England in a sort of orphanage. The older the man gets the more he starts involving monsters in his stories. Everybody believes the man is going crazy but when Jacob sees a monster when his grandfather is killed, he doesn't know what to think anymore. Were the stories real? Is he going crazy too, just like his grandfather? 

To discover all the answers, Jacob makes a trip to the island Abe told him about. The things he finds there change him and his "ordinary" life forever. And they can't be "unfound"...

This was really a good book. You never know what will happen next and you really want to know while reading this. The pictures in it were great too! I was always looking forward to some new ones because they gave the peculiar children and their world a little more tangibility!