Just One Day

"We are born in one day. We die in one day. We can change in one day. And we can fall in love in one day.  Anything can happen in one day,"

Just One Day by Gayle Forman
4 of 5 Stars
Format: Hardcover
Genre: New Adult, Adventure, Romance, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, College
Pages: 368

Summary:

Allyso has pretty much had everything set for her. Her overbearing mother constantly makes plans for her and her parents never take the time to talk to her, just at her.

For a graduation present Allyson goes with her best friend on a tour group to travel around Europe. On the last day of the tour she and her best friend sneak away from the tour to go see an underground performances of the Twelfth Night. Allyson seems to have a instant connection with a dutch actor, Willem, who performs as sebastian.

By chance, they managed to find each other and Willem convinces Allyson to go away with him to Paris for the day and for the first time Allyson takes a leap of faith and joins him  They find adventures and talk of love. By the next morning she finds herself alone, deserted in Paris.

From that one day her life would change. While searching for Willem she also learns about herself along the way.

"And that's when I understand that I have been stained. Whether I'm still in love with him, whether he was ever in love with me, and not matter who he's in love with now, Willem changed my life. He showed me how to get lost and then I showed myself how to get found. 

Maybe accidents isn't the right word for it after all . Maybe miracle is.

Or maybe it's not a miracle. Maybe this is just life. When you open yourself up to it. When you put yourself in the path of it when you say yes."

My thoughts

I swear books like this one ruin my chance of ever finding someone. Willem in this book is just perfect (except for the disappearing bit), I would love to meet him the way Allyson did and have that one day.

I would've given this book a 5 star but this book seemed to drag a bit. Allyson whiny attitude drove me nuts I just wanted to shake her! She was a bit o a downer, couldn't she just let her friend and the people who wanted to be close to her know of her story. That would've saved a lot of time. The story was very predictable. I really liked the vivid details so what was happening and how she was feeling. It was easy to immerse yourself with the characters and everything she felt, I felt.

This book has got me wanted to travel now, just reading the details of her adventure makes me want to go somewhere anywhere but here. I liked that she started off as the sheltered girl who pretty much did what she was told and went to being a girl who asserted herself and went for what she wanted. She did what she felt was right and gone for it not matter what her parents felt.

Trust me when I say, to spare your feelings wait till the next book comes out to read it. Or else you'll be like me and have to wait months till it comes out. I hate that!

Gayle Forman is such a talented author and can really get her reader so emotional with her heartbreaking and inspiring books. If you liked this book you'll love her other books: If I Stay and Where she went.

Oh yea I forgot to mention, Cliff hangers!!!! No!!!! Can't believe I got to wait till October to see what happens next. When I went to the book signing Q&A for Gayle Forman the next book is supposed to start went he left her that day and what he had to find her and what happens at the ending of this book.

"...being Lulu, it made me realize that all my life I've been living in a small, square room, with no windows and no doors. And I was fine. I was happy even. I thought. Then someone came along and showed me there was a door in the room. One that I'd never even seen before. Then he opened it for me. Held my hand as I walked through it. And for one perfect day, I was on the other side. I was somewhere else. Someone else. And then he was gone, and I was thrown back into my little room. And now, no matter what I don, I can't seem to find that door."

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

"Even in the Future the Story Begins with Once Upon A Time." - Cinder by Marissa Meyer 

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Stars: 5 of 5
Format: Paperback
Genre:  Young Adult, Diastolic, Romance, Fairy tales, Science Fiction Retelling.
Pages: 390

Summery

Theres nothing special about Linh Cinder, shes just young cyborg mechanic who lives with her step mother, two sisters and her best friend android, Iko. When her sister fall ill, she is blamed by her Step mother and sister and gets sent away to be used as a testing subject so her step mother wont have to deal with her anymore.

Slowly information about a past she remembers nothing of starts to resurface revealing her true self. On top of that she keeps crossing paths with the soon to be emperor of Beijing and end up with a romance that was destined to never be.

My thoughts.

I liked this book so much I was too much that I've already started writing half this review before it even finished. I just wanted to say the imagery is amazing. Other then reading my other hobby includes Painting/Sketching and this book has enough descriptions to get me actually itching to draw a picture of what Cinder could possibly look like or the other characters  I love the twist and turns that occur in this book. I've read a lot of adaptions to the Cinderella story and most of them where predictable and this wasn't, I love that I keep getting surprised of what is going to happen next. There is no other Cinderella adaption like this. Even the ending got me curious of what happens next, Thank goodness Scarlet (The next book in this Lunar Chronicles) is out and my library is already in process to get it to me before the end of the week.

(Written after book was read) There is so much to like about this book from the imagery  the way its fast paced, I liked how well the characters were written. I liked that it had a different setting with the whole Dystopia thing, normally when I find a book that's dystopian its based where the US was this book is based in Beijing. With this book what I ended up getting is a book wit humans, cyborgs, androids and aliens. I'm not a big fan of Aliens I believe I've mentioned that before, the only other book I've read with aliens was In The After. Most of what I've come across in this book is different from what I normally read, so this book was kind of out of my reading comfort zone.

What I also liked about this book is that it didn't go overboard with romance or that whole love at first sight kind of thing, you can tell there was a interest between the prince and Cinder but it was subtle. Too many YA books go overboard with the romance and this just has a little touch of if which I appreciate. It wasn't over the top and it wasn't too little, it was just enough romance thrown in.

My favorite character had to be Iko, yea she only lasted like half the book but that "glitch" she had gave her a great and funny personality. I almost kept forgetting that she was an android, even Iko would almost forget. "I have a glitch, too. Sometimes I forget that I'm not human. I don't think that happen to most androids." (That was from the short story Glitch which is a special bonus in the book. If you would like to check out the Prequel Glitch  Click Here ) She is the most girlish robot I've ever heard and I like the little comments she says in the book.

(Illustration by Goni Montes)

The Mind Thieves

The Mind Thieves by Lori Brighton (The Mind Readers #2)
4 of 5 Stars
Format: Ebook
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance, Adventure, Suspence
Pages: 228

Summery

After Cameron got out of her mysterious coma she moved to the islands with her grandma working at a bar on the beach livings a perfectly good life. That was until a stranger showed up walking straight towards her at the end of her shift. Eventually she finds that there are more like her (Mind readers) and that the man had come to fetch her to bring her to her father who was supposedly dead or was it missing? Before the guy could bring her quietly people appeared at her grandmothers also with the intent of taking her also.

My Say:

I'm not sure why I wrote 4 of 5 stars. There was a bit of love interests. Lots of chases and things going on. Plenty of bad guys appearing that may be good guys that are just misunderstood  This book was fast paced. I liked the Cameron questioned everything but it drove me crazy that even if she asked certain things nothing got answered.

I don't know what to say something about this book rubbed me the wrong way. Normally a book this interesting would get 5 stars but not sure whats up this time.  The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger but for some reason wasn't surprising. Maybe it was too predictable.

Dark and Hollow Places

The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan
Stars 5 of 5
Pages: 374
Genre: Young Adult, Zombies, Dystopia, Horror, Fantasy, Romance

Summery:

At a very young age Annah and Elias left Annah's twin sister in the forest of hands and teeth by herself and when they went to go find her they managed to get lost. For many years Annah and Elias managed to roam around till the made it to the Dark City meanwhile Abigail Gabriel lived in Vista both leading different lives.

When they finally come together, they find themselves in trouble with the city being overrun by inconcecrated/Mudo (Zombies). With the help of Elias and Catcher they are sent with recruiters to a secure place where they can be safe... for a price. Since Catcher is immune to the infection he must help the recruiters gather supplies and foods and in exchange his friends have a safe place to stay. Soon enough Annah comes to realize they aren't safe as they thought they where and will try to come up with a way to get out. 

My say:

Where has this book been hiding? Just perfect. Finally a great zombie book from Carrie Ryan. The first two books should be chucked out the window and this book should just be the only one left. This book had loads of zombies, a decent amount of action and suspense to keep me wanting more. 

My favorite character is Annah, I love how courageous and selfless she was. She faced danger to help the ones she cares about and helps those who she doesn't even know. Shes also resourceful and smart coming up with ways to help escape when they where in trouble. Shes definitely a quick thinker and managed to narrowly escape many situations that should've left her dead. The only problem was her insecurities about how she looked. She compared her looks to her sister a lot and I just felt like screaming at her, that looks aren't important. I also loved how strong she was and how she didn't depend on any one to help her, She didn't play the victim  When she was in trouble she'd face it head on and take what ever consequence that came with it. She didn't like when she guys tried to fight her battles and defend her, she fought for herself.

So to those who haven't read this trilogy or what ever you'd call it, don't bother reading the first two just skip ahead to this book. The great thing about that too is if you ever do actually take my advice and do just that you wouldn't be missing anything because there is pretty much a recap of what happens in the past books when they talk about old memories.

Highly Recommend!

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Young Adult, Fiction, Dystopia, Horror, Zombies, Romance
Pages: 404

Summery:

Gabry has lived her life safe in a light house between the forest of hands and teeth and the ocean. Happy with her life in the the town that she grew up in, leaving the town was never something wanted. One day her friends decide they want to cross the barriers to have a little fun and visit an abandoned amusement park. They managed to convince Gabry to join them despite her objections. They knew of the dangers and still chose to go and end up finding themselves in trouble. Friends were bitten and turned, some friends were caught by the officials but Gabry ran abandoning her friends. From that day on Gabrys life has changes as one after another things are turning for the worse, then she meets a stranger and ends up running from the life she once knew. 

My Say

If I had to compare The forest of hands and teeth and this book I would have to say that the first book to this series is the best. This book really was a disappointment. The first book I liked, its wasn't that big of a deal though. I was hoping for the best when I came to read this book and I found that this book isn't even something I would recommend to another or read again. I'm the type of person that when I start a series I don't stop till the end and this book has got me thinking whether I should trudge forth and get to the the last book of this trilogy (If this is a trilogy). I keep hearing good things about the third book so I might read it and hopefully it'll be good.

First of all I didn't like Gabry I thought that she was coward and she made a lot of stupid choices and could've helped save her friends from this situation. There wasn't enough conflict to keep me interested  There was no suspense. A lot of things were predictable that I kept getting bored and putting it down. I felt like it was a book I've read before, and if you've read the first book you'll pretty much know what happens in the second book  because everything is pretty much the same just different names and places. Both stories had the love triangle  an equally annoying main character who is a coward or selfish, they both and both are chased into a another town by either the dead or living. It just felt like there could've been more I enjoyed the first because it was unique but it was still a good but but the second is OK.

If you want a summery of the book check out this review its the greatest. I couldn't help but laugh because this review is true. Architeuthis's review.

If you are reading this series or considering it I don't recommend you read this book. Its not that interesting and there are thousands of other books that are like 100x better then this.

If you still want to get a copy of the book to see for yourself you can get it on: Amazon Paperback or Kindle