Room by Emma Donoghue The Movie

Room by Emma Donoghue is being made into a movie. The author, Donoghue, herself will be joining in on writing the script while Lenny Abrahamson will be the director. The book is very powerful with a disturbing plot based on real life events. Still no word on the actors yet because writing and everything else for the movie is still underway. You can read a little more information about the upcoming movie here.

The Iron Daughter Review

Title: The Iron Daughter (The Iron Fey #2)
Author: Julie Kagawa

The Iron Daughter is the second book in The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. I absolutely loved the first book in this series so I was excited to finally get the second book and start reading it.

The first book ended with the defeat and death of the Iron King. So what else could go wrong? Well, it seems like that even thought the Iron King was defeated, the Iron Fey are still around and they have a new leader! Before the iron fey come back though, there is some court drama between Meghan and Mab, the Queen of the Winter court. The drama basically revolves around Winter-Summer fey drama and Meghan's feelings for Prince Ash. It is forbidden for a fey from the Winter Court to be with a fey from the Summer Court so this gives us a little tragic Romeo-Juliet esque story.

In this book, Meghan and the gang have to leave the fey world and make a trip to Earth. To be honest, while this was a nice break from fey world drama, I found myself skipping some parts here; namely the prom scene.

Really though, the fey court drama and the fight with the new foe, iron fey, are my favorite parts of this series. I don't care about Meghan's school drama. :p

Another interesting thing that happened in The Iron Daughter is that we learn about Puck's feelings and thus the love triangle is introduced! I have to say though, although the love triangle plot device is overused in YA literature, I think it works with the Iron Fey series. It makes sense and I do not feel like Puck's feelings are so out of place that they are completely unrealistic. They were friends for a while and he spent enough time around her to maybe develop feelings.

I am still not a fan of Ash and would much rather see Meghan with Puck or no one. Ash treated her like crap throughout the whole book until the end and even in the end he is not that nice and loving. He gets jealous over some guy at Meghan's high school trying to flirt with her. I just don't see the appeal in a guy who is a jerk to you then gets jealous at everything. He's not worth it, Meghan!

Ironhorse and Grim are still the best characters though. but I think Ironhorse needs to go to a day spa and learn to relax! He keeps yelling (ALL CAPS).

Over all, I loved this book and was not disappointed. The writing flows together nicely and there was no part in the book where I felt like things were dragging on so much that it made me want to put the book down. Also, the cover art is still so beautiful.

Rating: 5/5 Chocolate Bars

Private School Blogger: I need my iPhone Review

Title: Private School Blogger: I need my iPhone
Author: Sam Lyons

Matthew Chumsley is a typical kid. He enjoys playing video games like minecraft and hanging out on the computer. When Matthew starts going to a new private school everything about his new school life is scary and intimidating for him. He would much rather go back to his video games than try to fit in at the new school. But when the tech loving Matthew decides to start a blog about his life and school and a gamer club, he finds that making new friends and school is not so difficult or scary after all.

This is a very good book for any video game loving kid. Private School Blogger: I need my iPhone is a great book for a kid who prefers spending time on the computer compared to reading because it makes a fun connection between writing/reading and gaming/the computer for kids. Matthew, the main character, decides to start a blog about his experiences at his new private school and soon finds that his classmates enjoy reading and commenting on his blog. Through his blog he is able to make friends at his new school. This is a great way to help kids learn how to make friends and have fun at a new school through blogging and video games.

Also, I love the idea of having a class minecraft game-time every week. Some schools really have this too and I've only heard positive things minecraft classes. If anyone is interested in this, there is a pretty interesting blog by a teacher who uses minecraft in his classroom.

The drawings throughout the book are nice too and dfiently give off a Diary of a Wimpy Kid vibe. If you or your kid are a fan of Diary of a Wimpy Kid then you will love Private School Blogger. Instead of a diary though, Private School Blogger is written in the style of a blog by Matthew and you get to read 'blog comments' from other kids. I thought that interaction between the characters was a very nice touch.

Another thing I liked about this book is that sometimes riddles were included in some of the blog posts. I think that is great for kids because it will get them to think by trying to figure out the riddle and also because riddles are just fun. ;)

The description of the Gamestop employee was spot on. Ha!

Lyson is able to write a relatable book for kids, Any kid reading Private School Blogger will be able to instantly relate to everything from Matthew's love of video games to bad school cafeteria food. Even I as an adult loved reading Private School Blogger. There are a lot of funny moments in the book too. This is a great book that the more dorky and tech loving kids will really enjoy reading.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Glasses of Strawberry Milk

Reading Update

I have finally got around to starting Iron Daughter, the second book in the Iron Fey series. I'm a bit behind on this series. :p I have to say though, I don't know why I put this book off for so long. Once I started reading I did not want to put it down. The book itself is pretty easy to read because it is not boring and the writing flows nicely.

I also started reading the second book in the Chemical Garden series. This one has not been as easy to get back into though. I just don't really care about this circus thing that is happening now.

Also, I was given a review copy of the book Private School Blogger: I need my iPhone so I will be typing up a review for that this afternoon.This book is said to have a Diary of a Wimpy Kid series style to it so fans of that series, check this book out.

The Lavender Herbal Review

Title: The Lavender Herbal: An Introduction Into Basic Herbal Medicine for the Budding Herbalist
Author: Sandra Glenn

This is a very good book for beginner herbalists or anyone who has an interest in herbalism and does not know how to get started. I'm already a bit of a gardener but now my interest in this area has grown and I'm excited to keep reading more about herbalism.

This book was a great introduction. It provides an overview and tips on choosing herbs, how to store herbs, the different types of remedies used among herbalists, safety concerns and more. I'm especially happy that there were warnings and safety tips throughout the book.

I decided to get the paperback version of the book, and I was worried at first because it felt thin but there is a lot of useful information in the book. I'm a bit disappointed in B&N though because when I got the book, the cover was slightly bent.

This book won't tell you everything there is to know about herbalism but it can provide you with a starting point. There's also a helpful list in the back of books and website to check out for farther information.

New Books

Yes! My books from amazon have arrived! I'm so excited. I'm just waiting for a couple from B&N now.

I've been dying to continue reading The Iron Fey and The Chemical Garden series. I'm on The Iron Daughter and Fever respectfully. Which one should I read first? I can't decide now. I also got a couple of non-fiction books because they were on sale and on my wishlist.

Tell Us We're Home Review

Title: Tell Us We're Home
Author: Marina Budhos

Tell Us We're Home is a story about three daughters of immigrant parents.

I picked this book up because I got it for a really good price, the cover is so pretty and the story sounded interesting.

To me, a lot of scenes in this young adult book gave me Lifetime Movie vibes. Now, I love Lifetime network movies but I did not enjoy reading this book. The relationship between the girls and the other characters at times felt a little fake or over the top.

A big part of the book is about class and race/immigration and understandably so. There were some interesting parts of the book that touched on these topics in a way that teenagers could relate to by presenting typical teen problems (dating, friendship, etc.) but also putting them in the context of also being a child of an immigrant. The parts about assimilation versus being afraid of losing your heritage in the process were also interesting to read.

Overall, I think this book does a good job in some areas but it just did not capture or hold my attention.

Rating: 2 out of 5 Chocolate Bars

Wither Review

Title: Wither (The Chemical Garden 1)
Author: Lauren DeStefano

In DeStefano's world, all of the countries except for the USA have been destroyed and now girls die at age 20 and boys die at age 25 all thanks to genetic engineering and science. This means that young girls are getting married in their teens and some are even kidnapped and forced into marriage. Usually, the young guy ends up marrying more than one girl too which leads to some potentially interesting sister wives drama and friendship.

This is exactly what happened to our main character, Rhine. She gets kidnapped and finds herself in a marriage along with two other young girls where she is expected to produce children until the whole dying at 20/25 thing is fixed. Rhine does not like it in her new home though.

I really enjoyed reading Wither. I love the concept and the relationship that comes from being forced into not only an unwanted marriage but a plural marriage. However, even though I was looking forward to seeing the sister wives dynamic play out among the family, I found it to be a little bit boring in this book. Of course, that was not the main focus of the book but it would have been nice to see more of the girls' relationships with each other and have them help each other out more than just the typical two boys-one girl love triangle.

I also really liked the whole concept for the dystopian world but some things did not make too much sense. North America being the only surviving country while all the other countries in the world are underwater really made no sense to me. There were some other little things that made this world less than believable. I really would have loved to see this dystopian world fleshed out more.

The writing was very beautiful to read though. For that reason alone (also, I do overall like the story), I will pick up the second book. I also enjoyed Rhine's character. I want to see her develop more in the next books though. I did not care for either of the guy characters and potential love interests. Especially Linden the sexy, rich husband.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Chocolate Bars

A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon Wrap Up

So, the read-a-thon ended Sunday and I'm just now getting around to updating. XD

I ended up finishing one book and starting two. I finished Wither by Lauren DeStefano. I am so happy that I finally got around to reading this book. I really enjoyed the book but at the same time it feels like a lot of it could have been cut out. I just hope that Rhine does not end up with Linden in the end.

Aside from finishing Wither, I also started reading I, Coriander by Sally Gardner and
A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare. I had some problems trying to read A Night to Surrender. I downloaded it from booksonboard and it would not let me transfer the file to my nook. So, I started reading it on the computer but now I have a new laptop and am having trouble accessing it on this new computer. I gave up and just started reading I, Coriander.

I think this was an okay read-a-thon. :p

A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon

I'm participating in the A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon! Actually, it already started so I am a day late. Still, better late than never~

For this read-a-thon, you can choose any books that you want. I want to try and stick to a theme for this week. I want to read books that give me a kind of "wintery" feel either from the cover or summary. When I think of winter I think of snow, darkness, the cold, starry nights, dreams, love and other similar things.

I really like read-a-thong because they always give me an extra boost of reading motivation and I need that right now. XD

Here's my TBR pile:

Wither by Lauren DeStefano (the cover "feels" wintery to me)
A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare 
I, Coriander by Sally Gardner
The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall
Your Republic is Calling You by Young-Ha Kim 

Breathe Book Review

Title: Breathe
Author: Sarah Crossan

Breathe is the first book in a new dystopian series. In this world everyone lives in Pods and the government controls the oxygen supply because of The Switch. The Switch happened when massive deforestation occurred resulting in few trees, no animals, people dying and the controlling government moving selected people into Pods. So, the plot is a typical totalitarian government controlling everything verses a small group of rebels deciding to fight back only now the rebels are hippies.

I really did love this book though. Even though the story idea is not the most original thing in the world, the author did a good job making an interesting and original story out of it.

One thing I liked was how the love triangle was actually one guy and two women because I usually don't see that. it is usually two men fighting over the same girl. Another thing about the love triangle in Breathe is that there is no fighting over the main guy, Quinn. Bea doesn't hate Alina just because Quinn likes her. It is also nice to see Alina not give a damn about Quinn. So, really, it is not much of a love triangle. I'm kind of glad about this fact because it was refreshing to read a story that was more about the dystopian world and the action and less about the romance compared to many other Young Adult books that I've been reading lately.

I have to say though, I don't care much for Quinn. He has not really done much yet but I see a lot of room for his character to grow and develop.

I also liked how the author wrote the story from the three main characters' point of view. It is very interesting to read the events from the three different perspectives and it is not confusing at all to go back and forth between each character.

A lot of reviews that I have read mention that the ending felt weak and disappointing. I can see why some people are saying this. The ending was kind of a weird place to leave off but this is part of a series so I have hope that the next book will wrap things up better.

Breathe is very nicely written and if you love dystopian novels I would give this one a shot.

Rating: 5/5 Chocolate Bars

Love Finds You in Wildrose, North Dakota

Title: Love Finds You in Wildrose, North Dakota
Author: Tracey Bateman

Love Finds You in Wildrose, North Dakota is a good, clean, christian romance novel. It is/was also a freebie for the Nook which is why I picked it up. I am kind of in a mood for stories set in the Midwest/American Frontier right now. Normally I wouldn't post a review for a romance book in this blog but since this is a clean romance (no naughty parts~) I'm fine posting this review here.

The book starts off with Rosemary traveling to North Dakota to move in with her twin sister and her twin sister's husband. Their father had just passed away and Rosemary had no where else to go.

This started off fine but then just went downhill as the story continued. Rosemary became a complete Mary Sue.

Also, the love between her and Finn seemed a little rushed at the end. They get married because of some legal issues over the land Rosemary brought but I never felt like the issues between them were resolved before or after the marriage. Rosemary didn't want to marry Finn because she did not want to be a replacement for her dead sister and we are told that Finn doesn't think of Rosemary in that way but he never really convinced Rosemary of it. I also found it weird that the whole town right away wanted Finn and Rosemary to get married. His wife and her sister just died but omg they need to get married right now! Because it is like the proper thing to do!!!

One thing I liked about this book is that it made me want to move out west and  herd sheep! Wait... that's not right.

The setting of the story was very nice. I feel like the author did a good amount of research before writing the story. At the end of the book she does mention that she took some liberties with the setting and time period and gives her reasons why.

This book was not really for me though.I don't like the whole sibling marrying her dead sibling's husband. At least the two main characters had reservations about getting married too but I feel like it still was not resolved. I never really felt that Finn had moved pass just seeing Rosemary as a separate person and Rosemary never got over the fear that she was just a replacement.

Rating: 2 1/2 Cafe Lattes out of 5