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!

Review "See Jane Score"

Some information

Title: See Jane Score (Chinooks Hockey Team #2)

Author: Rachel Gibson

Pages: 303

Published: January 2003

Publisher: Avon

My Source: Boekenfestijn Antwerpen 2013

My Score on Goodreads: 5 stars

Covertext

THIS IS JANE

A little subdued. A little stubborn. A little tired of going out on blind dates with men who drive vans with sofas in the back, Jane Alcott is living the Single Girl existence in the big city. She is also leading a double life. By day, she's a reporter covering the raucous Seattle Chinooks hockey team—especially their notorious goalie Luc Martineau. By night, she's a writer, secretly creating the scandalous adventures of "Honey Pie"...the magazine series that has all the men talking.

SEE JANE SPAR

Luc has made his feelings about parasite reporters—and Jane—perfectly clear. But if he thinks he's going to make her life a misery, he'd better think again.

SEE JANE ATTRACT

For as long as he can remember, Luc has been single minded about his career. The last thing he needs is a smart mouthed, pain in the backside, reporter digging into his past and getting in his way. But once the little reporter shed her black and gray clothes in favor of a sexy red dress, Luc sees that there is more to Jane than originally meets the eye.

Maybe it's time to take a risk. Maybe it's time to live out fantasies. Maybe it's time to....

SEE JANE SCORE!

My review

Oh how I love the writing style used by Rachel Gibson! Every single book of hers captures my attention from the first page on. I can't put them down and have to force myself to read slowly. I hate the idea that my book would be read in one single day. Less time to enjoy it... So I devour it as slowly as possible.

This book is the second one in a series, but what I love about these books is the fact you don't have to read them all or read them in order to comprehend the story. In fact you don't need the other books in the series at all. Aside from a little reference here and there these books are perfectly capable of standing alone.

I have read the first one in the Chinooks Hockey Team Series too, but that's just because Rachel Gibson is starting to be my favorite author! This is REAL chicklit and sometimes a girl just needs real chicklit! 

I'm just going to state the obvious, but in this book Jane Alcott is our main character. A short and natural woman of 30. For her job she writes fiction for women (and men!) in magazines. Some of her stories wouldn't give you the idea she's a calm and quiet person, but she is. When the Chinooks Hockey Team hires her as the reporter for their matches, she immediately accepts. She needs the money and a little fame wouldn't hurt her writing carreer. The problem is the team doesn't like the idea of a female reporter travelling with them. Maybe she's bad luck... You never know...

While Jane struggles to find her place in this team of big and bold men, she starts to get to know their goalie Luc Martineau better and better. He's arrogant and doesn't like Jane at first, but as always in a good chicklit book they discover a friend and even more in each other. Luc and Jane grow towards each other and soon love is in the air. They have to struggle through a few problems, but in the end they admit they need the other one in their life! Even Luc has to admit he loves this litlle reporter with the big mouth... And that's a completely new thing in his life!

Why are the books written by Gibson my favorites? She just knows how to create good and credible characters. In this book Jane was so recognizable for us, normal women. She doesn't look like a Barbie and has to persuade people with her character. This time she really succeeds to persuade a man with her character. Luc doesn't stand a chance when he meets this reporter. He hates her kind, but immediately feels she's different. Though Luc seems an arrogant sportsman at the beginning, he turns out to be a great brother for his sister Marie, a good man and a super lover for Jane. It feels good to see a "normal" girl and a "star" loving each other for who they are, putting their prejudices aside.

This book made me hold my breath at some times. I knew how it would all end, but still I couldn't stop reading. It's a book you can read in one day without a problem (it only is SUCH a shame if you do :p ). In my opinion these books would make great movies (for women :p).

December - Christmas: Santa Claus is coming to town!

Here I am! After a long while, I'm back with some ideas about the books I read this month! For the first time I'm on track with my Goodreads Reading Challenge and it feels good! That's all due to the Christmas themed books I read the past two weeks. I'll put them all below and I'll give a short review (really short). Can't say I disliked one of these books because they were all full of love and the Christmas spirit. That's why I will only read one more Christmas themed book after the one I'm reading now. I wouldn't want to become tired of Jingle Bells and Candy Canes... 


Spirits of Christmas by Nicky Wells
For my review on this book, just check the one below. I loved this book! It made me want to read the original "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. This is certainly a must read! Hot chocolate and cookies are needed while you read this "cozy" story! 


Be mine for Christmas by Alicia and Roy Street
This short story was really a nice read. I loved the fact is was so short but despite its shortness was able to tell a beautifull story where you really get to know the two main characters, Ellie and Reece. When Ellie struggles to find a good job and Reece offers her one at his Christmas tree farm, she doesn't know this new boss will turn out to be the man of her life. Slowly the two start to like each other and realise they don't want to go on without the other one after Christmas!


Miss Kane's Christmas by Caroline Mickelson
When I started reading this book, I didn't really know whether I would like a book about a real Santa Claus and his family. I love Christmas, but to say I believe in Christmas... That's one bridge too far. After reading a chapter however I liked this book a lot and couldn't put it down... It also is a short story, but I didn't mind it at all. There were no unnecessary parts in this book. I loved reading this one and the cover is so simple but cute! 


Jingle This by Stephanie Rowe
My God, I hated the cover on this book! It's not ugly, but it doesn't give you the impression there's a good story behind it. It looked cheap to me and I didn't have high expectations on this one. Again I was mistaken and loved this book once I started reading it. The story developed well and I liked the characters in it (the good ones that is). 


Bah, humbug! by Heather Horrocks
When I read the covertext of this book, I didn't know whether it would be a read I'd like. I tried the book anyway and look at it now! It's on my "Favorites" shelve on Goodreads which means I liked it more than a lot! In this book we meet Lexie and Kyle. Lexie is extravert, loving, caring and a mother. Kyle is introvert, doesn't know how to show love to the people around him, suffers a writer's block and feels all alone (maybe because he is all allone). When these two meet each other they don't like the other one a lot. They have a big fight over a snowman, but after that they become good friends and realise they could use someone in their life to love! 

Mistletoe and Magic 
Insanity Claus by Carolyn Hughey
The first little story in this book was really adorable. We meet Mallory who owns a Christmas shop with her sister. She's a widow with two teenage daughters, struggling to have a good relationship with her eldest. Not knowing what to do when she meets the handsome stranger A.J. Miller, she pushes him away. Luckily for her he knows she wants him as badly as he wants her, but she's afraid her eldest daughter will disapprove a new relationship after the death of her father. A.J. tries his best to win the daughters for him too and shows Mallory they can have a happily ever after together.

The gift of Magic by Gina Ardito
I'm still busy reading this book, but it's a good one so far. In this story we meet Polina, a girl with a difficult childhood. When she's 28 y.o. her mother dies and wants her to put her ashes in the family grave... in Poland... Polina hates the idea of going to Krakow! It represents everything her mother stood for, everything she hated in het mother. Magic, the idea of romance, love,... What Polina didn't expect was that she would find the magic and romance over there for herself... Maybe it's even love... But will she admit that??

Voila, now you have an idea of what I've been reading this month so far. I loved all these little books! Again, I can't let you go without a Christmas song! Enjoy! Greatings from Santa Claus and me! 

Giveaway at "This Chick Reads"

Oeeeh, nice giveaway on the blog of "This chick reads". You should definitively check it out! 

Click on the link and enter the rafflecopter. Best of luck dear friends and early Merry Christmas to all of you!
Visit this blog: http://thischickreads.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/all-i-want-for-christmas-international-giveaway/

Review "Spirits of Christmas"

Some information

Title: Spirits of Christmas

Author: Nicky Wells

Pages: 126

Published: October 2013

Publisher: Createspace

My scource: the author (thank you!)

My score on Goodreads: 5 stars

Covertext

Spirits of Christmas: A Rock’n’Roll Christmas Carol

At one time, up-and-coming rock singer Jude had it all: a great band, a platinum record, a loving girlfriend. This Christmas, however, he is well down the road towards spontaneous self-destruction. 

Unwitting at first, Jude has progressively alienated his band and driven away the love of his life. Tonight, the night before Christmas Eve, he has broken the final taboo during a disastrous gig. Yet Jude doesn’t see how badly his life has derailed, not until a ghostly procession of legends passes through his bedroom with a series of vivid and powerful wake-up calls.

Will the Spirits help Jude put the friendship, love, and rock music back into his Christmas?

Spirits of Christmas is a modern-day rock’n’roll adaption of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. This novella will enchant romance readers, rock lovers, fans of ghost stories, and everybody who adores the festive season.

My review

I have to admit something... I've never read "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. I know, I should be ashamed of myself... Well, I can say that after reading this adaptation I probably will pick up the original book one day. I liked this new and fresh version a lot! Nicky Wells was able to create a beautiful short story where you get to know the character soooo well and you really are curious about what will happen to him next. A real Christmas lover like I am, has to read this book. You will be in the festive spirit right away. 

After deciding I would read some Christmas themed books this month, I chose this one as my first and I don't regret it. I started singing Christmas songs, drinking hot chocolate and buying Christmas presents without hesitation (I mean it :p I only need a tree to put the presents under now). Nicky writes in a way you really feel the cold air around you (even when you're reading inside), where you're almost able to see the christmas tree in Jude's house, you feel his anger and frustration. You even feel Jude's regret after he has pushed all his loved ones away a few days before Christmas...

Talking about Jude... Jude is our main character. A young, once successful singer-songwriter with a little band, called "The Blood Roses". Once succesfull... Jude is unfortunately ruining his career by being a hateful person. He wants all the success for himself and doesn't want to share it with someone else in his band. His girlfriend also suffers his explosive character and his anger. Nobody wants to live a life near Jude anymore. He has ruined it all but believes he doesn't need anyone anyway. If they don't like him and support him, that's up to them. He's able to do it all by himself and to live his life alone. 

Just while Jude is thinking this a spirit apears. Here it all starts. Jude meets three spirits, one who shows him his past, one who shows the present and just guess what the third one shows him. The ghosts don't do this without purpose. They want Jude to learn a lesson. To see how he is with people, how they once loved him but started to dislike him more and more. It's important Jude learns his lesson... Otherwise he WILL be alone for the rest of his life, just like he wanted...

I really loved this story and recommend it to every reader, but especially to everybody who loves Christmas. Just take some hot chocolate, a cookie, a blanket and curl up with this book. You won't regret it! 

In fact this would be the best time to get it! Enjoy the promo in honour of St. Nikolaus. Buy yourself a little present! 

About the author

Hi! I’m Nicky Wells, your ultimate rock chick author. My books offer glitzy, glamorous contemporary romance with a rock theme ~ imagine Bridget Jones ROCKS Notting Hill! If you’ve ever had a crush on any kind of celebrity ~ rock, pop, movie or other ~ you’ll connect with my heroes and my leading ladies!

Like my first leading lady, Sophie, I love listening to rock music, dancing, and eating lobsters. When I’m not writing, I’m a wife, mother, occasional knitter, and regular contributor to The Midweek Drive show on Lincoln’s Siren 107.3 FM. Rock on!

Because this book really ROCKS and because Christmas music also Rocks, I wanted to give you this little song to end with! I chose this one because of the title. ;)