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Beastly Beastly is a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast in New York City told from the point of view of the beast. The beast in this story is Kyle Kingsbury, the son of a newscaster and probably the most popular boy at his elite school. He was placed under this spell by a witch named Kendra because he couldn’t look beyond people’s outer appearances.
Through the course of the story, Kyle changes his name, kidnaps a girl named Lindy to live with him in his seclusion, and gradually learns to see beyond appearances and love Lindy. And fairytales are never complete without happy endings, so it’s pretty easy to figure out what happens in the end.
I was a little disappointed in this novel. From reading a small excerpt, I had expected a more exciting story, but it turned out to be very predictable. The story took place over the course of two years, and it seemed rushed. It was also unrealistic how Kyle changed his ways to become considerate and giving very quickly after he transformed into a beast. It did make sense that Kyle was desperate for someone to love him so that he could reverse the spell, but it was unrealistic how Kyle just seemed to realize that he loved Lindy. The ending was a little too sweet and perfect for my taste, but I guess all fairytales have to have happy endings.
My favorite parts from this novel were the transcripts of the online chat group Kyle joined once he transformed into a beast. I enjoyed reading about the other creatures in the chat group and figuring out which fairytale they belonged to.
Overall, Beastly did not turn out to be one of my favorites. I would not recommend rushing out and buying it. But if you like retellings of fairytales, then you should check this out.
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Frenemies Avalon Greene and Halley Brandon have been best friends since forever. Avalon decides to throw a party to celebrate this friendship right after the beginning of eighth grade, and event Halley isn’t too wild about at first but eventually accepts. They are coauthors of their school’s fashion blog which nearly the entire school reads. But after their first summer apart from one another, it seems as if each girl has found new friends and a new style. Or is it all just a big understanding? Either way, it seems that their almost lifelong friendship is going down the drain.
Avalon, the true daughter of two lawyers, draws up an “agreement†for this awkward arrangement, but it doens make their non-friendship any easier. From petty arguments to attacks on each other’s fashion sense (or lack thereof), this is full out war. But it is temporary? Will their friendship survive, or is it truly over?
For me, Frenemies was interesting at best. The cover misleading; the cover girls may have accurate hair colors, but similarities with the main characters stop at that. The twists and arguments were repetitive; just when everything seemed like it was going to be okay, something had to go wrong. The whole plot was a bit too “middle school†for my taste, but I think that’s the intended audience. I also liked how the story was consistently focused on friendship.
Also, I found it slightly annoying that there was so much obsession about fashion. The obsession itself wasn’t bad, but the references to certain designer left me confused. I am by no means a fashion guru. I did not understand the majority of these references, and I was only able to discern who these people were from the context. Nevertheless, I did like the fashion blog and fashion advice scattered throughout the book (minus the fashion insults).
As this novel is more for the middle school crowd, I recommend it for fans of the Clique series by Lisi Harrison. Reviewers who liked Lucky by Rachel Vail (it’s not out yet) will also like Frenemies because of the similarities. Other fashion forward readers who liked Poseur by Rachel Maude and Violet on the Runway by Melissa Walker will also appreciate this book. Frenemies is going to be turned into a series, but since the first one didn’t completely wow me or capture my attention, it’s not a book I will run out to buy (which doesn’t mean I won’t read it, because I probably will).
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Faking 19 Everyone knows what senior year means: it’s party time!
At least, that’s what it’s like for best friends Alex and M. During the week, they do their schoolwork, but on the weekends, they let loose and get wild. After their traditional weekend snack, they go shopping or to whatever party sounds interesting. And everything seems to be going great, until the seams in Alex’s life start fraying.
Despite giving off the appearance that her life is perfect, Alex’s life is far from it. Her parents split when she was young. Now her dad is busy working and hitting on other women while her mom just ignores her. Alex’s grades are steadily declining until she’s failing, loses her scholarship, and even faces the possibility of not graduating with her class. On top of that, there are problems with her best friend M and also with an older guy Connor. It might not seem that Alex and M could have difficulties with their friendship because they’ve known each other since Alex moved to Orange County. And as for Connor, he just seems like the perfect British hottie.
Throughout the book, Alex is forced to reevaluate her life and what she wants. There are some harsh realizations she is forced to face about her M and others about her dad. She has to figure out what she wants to do with her life, but for Alex, that’s a lot easier said than done. She can’t figure out where she wants to go, and since her grades have hit a new low, she might not even be able to attend college.
Of course, this is the kind of book that won’t be good unless it has a happy ending, which it does. I was glad that the ending wasn’t too perfect, because then it wouldn’t be realistic. In my opinion, Faking 19 was a very well-told story that could happen in real life. I appreciated how the story sounded like it could take place where I live. Contrary to what a reader might infer from the title of this book, Faking 19 is not all about fake IDs to get into the next hottest club. It’s more of a story of a girl finding herself and discovering what she wants. I would recommend this book for a light read.
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Saving Zoe: A Novel On Echo’s fourteenth birthday, she received the worst present ever: new of the disappearance and death of her older sister Zoë. This pain is hard for Echo to deal with, and she still struggles even a year later.
Echo is now fifteen and just starting high school with her best friends Abby and Jenay. The only hard thing about this is seeing Zoë’s old friends and Marc, Zoë’s boyfriend. Echo still isn’t over the death of her sister. She feels pretty empty around her friends and her new boyfriend Parker. So when Marc gives Echo Zoë’s diary, Echo embraces this chance to better understand her sister before her death. Unfortunately, this also leads Echo to imagining she is Zoë, which only messed up her life even more.
Alyson Noël does an incredible job of incorporating Zoë’s journal and Echo’s high school experiences together and makes the story flow nicely. Echo is sometimes hard to understand, but everything is clarified later. While the story isn’t edge-of-your-seat exciting, it is a high worthwhile read is you stick it through, and I was captivated as Echo discovered the truth behind the end of her sister Zoë’s life. The story provides a lot to think about involving sisterhood and love. I’ve only read a couple of books that deal with death, but Saving Zoë is probably one that I will remember the most.
It is pure coincidence that I was listening to the song Light up the Sky by Yellowcard as I read the ending of this book, but I highly recommend you do this too. The song reminds me so much of Zoë and Marc’s relationship, and it definitely heightens the emotions of the ending, as music often does in movies.
Saving Zoë appeals to a wide audience, but I suggest you read it only if you are up for an emotional ride. Fans of Sweethearts by Sara Zarr and The Year My Sister Got Lucky by Aimee Friedman will understand the bonds of love between sister and friends presented in Saving Zoë. People who were moves by Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher , Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, and other books regarding dealing with death will also find this a very worthwhile read.
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Snakehead (Alex Rider) Series: Alex Rider Alex Rider is back on another mission even though he swore he was finished with the spy business. Right after literally dropping out of the sky, he is picked up and sent to the Australian Secret Service, who wants to enlist his help. At first he refuses, but when he finds out he could be working with his godfather, he realizes he wants to find more out about his dead parents.
The mission is to infiltrate a dangerous snakehead, or gang, in Indonesia to find out how they smuggle people into Australia. They are disguised as Afghan refugees. Things go wrong almost from the start. Because what Alex doesn’t know is that the head of the organization, Major Yu, also a member of Scorpia, already knows that the young Afghan refugee named Abdul is actually Alex. And Yu’s just biding his time until he can end Alex’s life.
Through the mission, Alex meets unexpected allies, more enemies, and discovers a horrible secret about his godfather Ash. I thought that Snakehead was the most exciting out of all the Alex Rider books yet. It was jam packed with action throughout the entire novel. Alex is constantly using his ingenuity to get out of sticky situations, and there are so many unexpected turns that make the story even more suspenseful and thrilling to read. My only complaint is that sometimes the story crosses over the line between credible and incredible, but other than that, this series is amazing.
I highly recommend this book to all action and adventure story fans. It might seem like more of a guy book on the surface, but girls will get into this series too. If you have read and like this book, then I also recommend the Gallagher Girl series by Ally Carter.
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City of Ashes (Mortal Instruments) Series: The Mortal Instruments Readers are brought back into the exciting world introduced in Cassandra Clare incredible City of Bones. Clary’s life can no longer be normal. Her mother is in a coma, her father is deranged, her best friend may no longer be human, and she has feelings that she shouldn’t have toward her brother Jace. Someone is murdering Downworlder children and has stolen the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword. Clary and Jace suspect it to be Valentine with another evil plot, and they know they must stop him. Their world is on the brink of war. Soon, they are swept up into another dangerous adventure as they struggle to save the ones they love as well as their own lives in this epic power struggle.
If possible, City of Ashes was even better than its prequel City of Bones. The story has non-stop action which kept me on the edge of my seat in suspense. I also highly enjoyed the love tensions among nearly all the characters. The story was just as unforgettable as the first, and the end left me hungering for more. City of Ashes is the type of story that I want to read over and over because it is just such a well-written and amazing story.
The characters in City of Ashes are just incredible. Clary is my hero; she’s strong and resourceful, even if she sometimes doubts herself. Jace is an alternate form of Edward Cullen; he’s sexy and will give anything to protect the ones he loves. The cast of characters from the Mortal Instruments series are some of my favorite fictional characters ever. They make me wish I could participate in their attractive, although dangerous, world.
I most definitely recommend the Mortal Instruments series to every eager reader out there (if you couldn’t already tell from my excited raving). Fans of supernatural series such as the Twilight series or the A Great and Terrible Beauty series, among others, will certainly fall in love with this amazing story. If you’ve already read City of Bones but not yet its sequel, then get on it! And if you haven’t even begun the series, you’d better get started. I promise you won’t regret investing your time in this incredible series.
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City of Bones (Mortal Instruments) Series: The Mortal Instruments Over the course of a single day, Clary’s whole life changes. When she goes to Pandemonium Club, she sees the murder of a blue-haired boy by three strange-looking teens wielding strange-looking weapons. But what she can’t believe is seeing the body disappear before her eyes, as if it was never there in the first place. And after that, Clary’s mom disappears and Clary is attacked by a mysterious creature, only to be saved by one of the strange teens from the nightclub. And with that, Clary is dragged into a dangerous world she never imagined existed.
Clary finds out that she’s connected to this new world not only by the teens who saved her, but by her mother and her mother’s friend Luke. But since her mother’s gone and Luke refuses to help her, Clary has nowhere to turn to except the mysterious teens, who reveal themselves to be Shadowhunters, an elite group of people whose job is to kill demons on earth. Soon, her best friend Simon is dragged in too, and Clary finds herself in the midst of a struggle to find the Mortal Cup before a very dangerous and unstable Shadowhunter named Valentine does.
It is very difficult for me to describe my initial reaction when I finished this book, but it goes along the lines of gasping, screaming, and ranting – but in a good way. City of Bones was one of the absolute best books I have ever read; it ranks up with Twilight and A Great and Terrible Beauty. It is a combination of some of my most favorite stories ever to create an awesome and unforgettable super-story.
I really love how Cassandra Clare incorporates the underworld into modern-day New York City. The world she creates in City of Bones is one of dangerous fun, and I was absolutely thrilled to go along for the ride. There is nonstop action throughout the whole book and I think that Jace is almost amazing enough to rival Edward Cullen in his sexiness. The only past of the book I was opposed to was how Clary and Jace ended up being related, because it ruined their chemistry.
City of Bones should be mandatory reading for every teen, and I would recommend it to everyone, especially fans of the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, the A Great and Terrible Beauty series by Libba Bray, the Blue Bloods series by Melissa de la Cruz, among other supernatural books. I guarantee that no one who picks this novel up will be able to put it down until they’ve finished this amazing story, and I know I cannot wait until I pick of the sequel, City of Ashes.
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A Woman's Triumphant Valor. Delicious Language. Award Winning Novel.
