Tag Archives: Book Review

Book Review: Looking For Alaska

I know, I know, so many John Green books lately. I bought 3 of them in the same day, so yeah. I promise the next book I review will be written by someone else.

As with everything I’ve read by him so far, I loved Looking For Alaska. Miles “Pudge” Halter goes off to boarding school, looking for his great perhaps. There he meets Chip “The Colonel” Martin, a pranking master, Takumi the unlikely MC, and Alaska Young. Miles is a fan of biographies, and even more so of famous last words. It’s a morbid fascination, but not as bad as some interests.

Alaska is a wild, messed up girl. She drinks, she smokes, and lives life dangerously. She’s kinda the very definition of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. She’s a master pranker as well, and the pranks that Alaska and The Colonel pull off are legendary.

But late one night, something terrible happens, leaving Miles with a Virgins Suicides type situation.

Final Verdict: I recommend this book, I adored it, for the exact comparison that I made above. The book ends feeling very much like the Virgin Suicides, and that is one of my all time favorite books.

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Book Review: Dark Tide

This week’s Book is Dark Tide by Elizabeth Haynes.

Genevieve has finally achieved her dream, she’s left London and all it’s stresses behind, bought her boat and is renovating it. All she had to do was watch a package for Dylan. But she hasn’t heard from Dylan in over 5 months when her best friend turns up dead and now Genevieve’s past comes back to haunt her. She never thought she’d have to tell any of her dock mates that she was once a dancer, or that the events that caused her night job and her day job to collide would catch up with her.

I was pretty surprised by this book. I wasn’t sure that I was going to like it when I grabbed it out of my library’s new section. However this book was absolutely riveting. Seriously, this is one of the best thrillers I’ve read and it’s been added to my to buy list. I loved how they interspersed her past and present and how every thing flowed together fluidly.

Final Verdict: If you like thrillers or suspense novels then I completely recommend this.

This weeks outfit really had nothing to do with this book, but it’s been kind of my uniform as the weather starts to cool down.

Outfit: Loft Sweater, H&M Leggings, Knit Scarf, and Pink and Pepper riding boots.

On My Face: Nars Sheer Glow Foundation in Siberia, Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla, Benefit’s Benetint, Benefit’s Watts Up, Benefit’s They’re Real, various Lancome Shadows, Makeup Forever HD Setting Powder.

My bracelet is the October Birthstone Bracelet from Alex & Ani which I absolutely adore.

And if you’re wondering about my scarf it’s an infinity scarf that I knit myself. There’s is also a matching hat to go with it because I’m awesome like that, that you will probably be seeing very soon. I’m so excited for it to be getting colder and the season to bundle up.

I was pretty in love with how this outfit turned out and felt that the colors were perfect for fall.

I’m also incredibly excited about all the leaves and will be raking them up this weekend for leaf pile jumping.

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Stylish Sunday’s: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Every year my town has a Fall Festival that I always attend. It has a few carnival rides, standard fair food, but really I only go for the Hot Apple Cider. I only like one ride there and that’s the Sizzler or Scrambler depending on which company is providing the rides. I usually am pretty lazy with what I wear since I’m running around with my 7 year old.

I wore a sweater from Hollister, a tank from The Limited, Victoria’s Secret Most Loved Yoga Pants, and my Pink and Pepper riding boots. Not Pictured Alex & Ani October Birthstone Bracelet. I did say I’d do an outfit where I made these pants acceptable for public. This is one of them. The only issue was my sweater kept riding up and that was irritating because even though it was long enough, it didn’t look long enough.

On My Face: Nars Sheer Glow in Siberia, Nars blush in Deep Throat, Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla, Benefit Watts up, Benefit They’re Real Mascara, Various Lancome Shadows. Hair pulled back in a very messy bun using an Emi-Jay hair tie.

Howl was a bit apprehensive about a carnival in the fall. He’s in good company though.

Howl wore his Worthy Dog Harness. I think he was just happy to be out and about.

A big reason why I like going to this festival is because it reminds of one of my favorite Ray Bradbury books Something Wicked This Way Comes. I know book reviews usually go up on Wednesdays, I really do recommend either this book or the movie for fall. It’s about a carnival that comes to Green Town in mid-October called Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show. Mr. Dark being the true owner of the carnival is also the Carnival’s illustrated man bearing a tattoo for each person bound to the Carnival. The Novel focuses on 14 year old boys (12 in the movie) Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade and Will’s Father Charles. The boys are excited for the Carnival that comes so late in the year but Charles Halloway is apprehensive about what it could mean.

I adore this book, and have for years. As I mentioned before it’s a bit hard for me to be unbiased when it comes to Ray Bradbury’s writing because I’ve loved his books since I was a child, and The Halloween Tree is one of the very first books I remember reading. It’s also the first movie I remember watching. I do recommend it though. Ray Bradbury is a famous Author for a very good reason and if you’ve never read his work before then this is a good place to start.

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Book Review: The Never List

Sarah and Jennifer are really careful, trusting their never list to keep them safe. A list they created after a horrible accident, one that made them more like sisters than friends. But one night they accidently break the worst possible rule they could on the never list and it costs them their freedom. Ten years later, Sarah is still trying to cope with the fact that Jennifer didn’t make it out of the cellar with her, and that the man who kidnapped them might be getting out for parole. Sarah decides she needs to find more evidence to keep that horrible man locked away.

The Never List by Koethi Zan was released early this year and I grabbed it while I was in a hurry at the library solely based on it’s title and the cover. I had absolutely no clue what it was about when I checked it out. I enjoyed this book. It’s dark and twisted, with plenty of things that you absolutely do not expect to happen. I think what made this book a bit darker for me, is that I have my own Never List of sorts. I grew up being very aware of the terrible horrible things that could happen to me. I still follow some of those rules I made up for myself, while others have proved to be unnecessary. However, reading this book, where these girls did everything they possibly could to keep themselves safe and they still ended up in this situation, absolutely horrified me. They were so careful, and they didn’t even mean to break the rule, it just happened.

Final Verdict: I fully recommend this book, I adored it and it’s going on my books I’ve read but want to buy and read again list.

Today’s outfit is actually a variation of one that I made a wishboard for last year.

I’m wearing a sweater from Gap, and the Victoria’s Secret Most Loved Leggings, my socks are from Target’s $1 section last Valentines Day.

On My Face: Nars Sheer Glow Foundation in Siberia, Nars Blush in Deep Throat, Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla and YSL Babydoll Mascara. Hair tie: Emi-jay. Glasses: Kate Spade

This is definitely an outfit that is cozy and comfortable, which was necessary because I sat down with this book and finished it all in one go. I like to be really cozy and comfortable when I read thrillers or horror novels, because it’s much easier to deal with the horrors of the world if you’re safe and cozy at home. I mean that’s so obvious that even Tool has a song about it.

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Book Review: Cemetary Girl

I’m going to open with there’s no outfit for this one. I said that I would include an outfit if I were particularly affected by a book, and then just somehow got in the habit of posting an outfit with each review. However that’s not why there’s no outfit, honestly it’s just that I’m sick again, and from now until July you’ll be hearing that a lot. Between allergies and having a low immune system, I’m just constantly ill. It’s why I’ve done a couple of sick day posts. I will try my best to get Stylish Sundays up each week, but I can’t promise that the book reviews will always have an outfit.

Now onto the book review:

As you can see I picked this book up at Target and then ended up loaning it to my mother the same day. This book is incredibly disturbing. I didn’t find it as disturbing as my mother found it, but even so. However my Mother has two girls, and I have one boy so that might have effected things a bit. Especially when you consider my mom has read some incredibly fucked up books and not batted an eye.

It’s about the Stuart Family, Tom, Abbey and Caitlin, and the aftermath of Caitlin’s disappearance when she’s 12 years old. She’s found 4 years later eerily calm and unwilling to talk about the time she was gone. When an arrest is finally made she refuses to testify against him.

Having just had his marriage dissolve, Tom is obsessed with finding out what happened to Caitlin while she was gone, even going so far as to using her as leverage with her kidnapper to get them both to talk.

I found the whole book to be creepy, and I sympathized the most with the Father until the end when his obsession with finding out what happened to her sends him off the deep end. In the end I was just disturbed by everyone. I absolutely hated the mother, and found her behavior to be not only pathetic, but weak and selfish. She finds her religion, which is not a bad thing to do when your child is missing. I’m not a church goer now, but I can’t say I what I would do if my son were to go missing. No, the worst part is it’s implied that she cheats on her husband with and then she leaves him for the Church’s pastor. The only one that I didn’t end up hating was Caitlin and that was only because I attributed her behavior to what she’d been through the last 4 years.

Final Verdict: I don’t know if I recommend this book. I think I was too disturbed by it, it didn’t give me nightmares or anything, but I can’t see picking it up for a re-read anytime soon. If you’re into this sort of book then go for it.

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