Heaven

Heaven

Title: "Heaven"
Author: Alexandra Adornetto
Plot: The plot continues to thicken in the sizzling third and last book in Adornetto's "Halo" series which followed the relationship of Xavier Woods and Bethany Church (now of course Woods) and troubles that resulted due to that relationship, from both upstairs and and down. One of these troubles is that immediately following the secret wedding ceremony between Xavier and Beth, a Reaper appears in the chapel in Venus Cove. Beth gets her angel on shoving Xavier behind her to protect him. But the Reaper isn't after him. He instead turns his attention to Father Mel and takes him as divine punishment for having helped the newly weds even knowing that Beth wasn't regular flavored human.

"Halo" (book one) saw the start of the relationship between Xavier and Beth as well the friendship of Beth and Molly. it was also in book one that Jake Thorn was introduced with threatening clarity.

"Hades" (book two) saw Jake drag an unwitting Beth into Hell where he kept her as his, albeit luxuriously treated, prisoner. It also introduces the conflict between Beth and Lucifer.

"Heaven" (book three) is where that hostility is exacerbated. A lot of important events happen in this last installment like Xavier, Beth and Molly going to the college of their dreams as well as Molly getting engaged and serious about relationships. There are also some shocking revelations in store which I won't hint at lest I ruin the surprise.

Apart from the ending my other favorite part of this last book was the scene on page 97 when Beth meets not only her room mate, Mary Ellen, but Mary Ellen's family and the exchange is between Mary Ellen and her brother Jordan about the unsuitability of a particularly short dress that his sister is planning on wearing to parties with boys on campus.

Also points go to Miss Adornetto for her awesome James Dean reference on page 100 which was quite nicely done and hilarious.

Rating: 5/5 beats of an angels wing. This is a definite for my book wishlist!!

I found that I enjoyed "Heaven" even more than I enjoyed the other two because the writing felt more polished. It was easy to see how, even in "Halo", how Miss Adornetto matured in herself and her writing from the start of the book to the middle and the best part is that you can see a definite further maturation of herself and her talents as a writer in this last book of the series. As she started to lace biblical elements and legends into her story her writing got stronger and more detailed as a result. This series was such a fantastic one to read and one that I will happily be buying for my personal library.

The Shadow Thief

 The Shadow Thief

Title: "The Shadow Thief"

Author: Alexandra Adornetto

Plot: This is quite an interesting and strange book that is best described by reading it for yourself. I fear any other way I try to tell about it won't do this strange and rich tale justice. 

That having been said I will give it a go. The two main characters are a young adventuress named Millipop Klompet and a shy, young, would be gemologist Earnst Perriclof who's cabinets of rocks are his prized possessions.  Already a mix for trouble right? 

The story follows the two on their world wind adventure of trouble with Milli being poisoned, the two are kidnapped and kept as prisoners only to be rescued by the dreadfully fussy mayor and mayoress of the town who turn them into pets essentially. There are hedgehogs for walls, the theft of shadows (as implied by the title but to say anything more on that will ruin the book), over indulgences of luxury, evil genius/conjurers, and a perpetually flummoxed flamingo who acts as Mr Mayors secretary. 

I really got into this book and quite enjoyed the complexity of the interwoven layers of the story. There are elements of myth, fairy tales, enough made up names to fill a dictionary and made up nursery rhymes. The characters are well developed and the imagery is delightful!! A must read for all ages.

Rating: 5/5 Millipop Klompet's

Books in the "Strangest Adventures" series are below:
- The Shadow Thief (Book 1)
- The Lampo Circus (Book 2)
- Von Gobstopper's Arcade (Book 3)

Alexander wrote "The Shadow Thief" when she just 13 years old and was apparently inspired by J. M. Barrie's "Peter Pan".

Hades

Book two in Alexandra's "Halo" series was quite gripping and enjoyable.

Title: "Hades"
Author: Alexandra Adornetto

Plot: The love story between Xavier and Bethany continues in the second book in the series except this time the pair are separated from each other in a major way with Jake Thorn (a human body possessed by one of the Originals who was the nemesis of the angels in the first book) abducting Bethany and dragging her into, you guessed it, Hell or Hades depending on which name your more familiar with.

 

And all because 1- Jake really thinks he is in love with Bethany and 2- he REALLY hates Xavier for having such a hold on Bethany's heart that she doesn't look favourably on her abductor. Hmm can't imagine why that could possibly be. (Heavy sarcasm by the way)

 

I'm actually finding myself hanging out to start reading the third book in the series and see how the cliff-hanger is resolved. (I'm not spoiling the ending of the second book-read it yourself!!)

 

Rating: 4 out of 5 beats of an angel's wing. 

Other books in the "Halo" series are below: 

-Halo (Book 1)

-Hades (Book 2

-Heaven (Book 3)

Halo

I'm ashamed to say that this is only my third book this year for my challenge which means I'm off to a really hideous start between work, personal life, relationship and cos-play... I need to make more time to read!!!

Title: "Halo"

Author: Alexandra Adornetto

Plot: A well written, if fluffy and angsty supernatural fiction about angels come to Earth and in particular one of those angels (Bethany) falling in love with a human boy named Xavier. 

Their relationship is only marginally better than the emotionally abusive relationship of Edward and Bella in Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series in that Bethany and Xavier allow their relationship to be so exclusive to the point of spending every justifiable waking minute with each other and letting friendships, school, family and duties take an unhealthy back seat. 

If one ignores this trite justification of yet another "your my whole world and my previous life before we got together suddenly doesn't matter" type of relationship (an unhealthy relationship example to be in a young adults novel read by young ladies generally between 13-22) then the rest of the novel is actually quite enjoyable and I did find that I enjoyed reading it to the point that I would be likely to read it again. 

The slightly different take on angels was quite interesting while Alexandra still stuck fairly close to the stories in the bible. I particularly like the conversation between Bethany and Xavier when she gleefully tells him she has come up with his nickname. 

The characters were developed well with my favorites being Xavier, Bethany and Ivy (Bethany's sister angel).

Rating: 3 out of 5 beats of an angel's wing. 

Other books in the "Halo" series are below: 

-Halo (Book 1)

-Hades (Book 2

-Heaven (Book 3)

Watership Down

After having read nothing in the last month due to a lot of personal crap that has been going on I'm ready to get back into the reading fray! And I'm doing that by starting with updating where I'm up to right now...

So far I have only read two books and I'm being sponsored $2 a book so I've only made $4... Not such a tremendous effort I know but I am officially getting my butt in gear again and getting on with the challenge.

Title: "Watership Down"
Author: Richard Adams
Plot: This book was originally a narrated tale off the top of Adams's head as he was driving with his two daughters and eventually at their persistence he did indeed write it down.

The tale follows the journey of Fiver, a rabbit with extra sensory perception and his brother Hazel. Fiver feels that at the burrow where they are living in the start of the story has got something bad coming for it and so he convinces his brother Hazel to help him tell the Owsla (rabbit chieftain of the burrow) that something bad is coming and that they need to leave.

They aren't believed and so they end up forming a merry little bands of strays and run away. The rest of the novel follows their perilous journey and search for a new and safe home that they can call their own.
This search finds them in dangerous situations where those they thought friends were manipulation them merely for the extension of their lives at the possible cost of the lives of those in Fiver's band as well as them nearly losing rabbits in their band because of attacks on their emissary by rabbits of other warrens.

My favorite parts in the book were the relation ship between Fiver and Hazel in which Adams showed a sense of real friendship and brotherly dedication. I felt like I really knew the two of them.

My other favorite part was the fact that this story reminded me of Orwell's "Animal Farm" with the under currents of failing communism, and also my other favorite of Orwell's  "1985" in terms of the lack of allowed free speech, and the militarised overreaction against whoever exercised the right of free speech and thinking for themselves. With the Owsla not believing the visions of impending doom that is also reminiscent of the Greek tragedy Agamemnon, written by Aeschylus, featuring Cassandra foretelling the doom and destruction of Troy by her brother Paris and having her father, King Priam, who didn't believe tell the city of Troy that she was spreading falsities and was poisoning people's minds.

Rating: 3 out of 5 bunny paws (for the slow going)

"Watership Down" was quite complex and I took a long time to try and get into it. I found it took me quite a lot of concentration just to stay focused on it and I could only read a few pages at a time. Hving said that though it was a great read.

Now with book two done and dusted I'm ready to get well and truly stuck into book three which is titled "Halo" and written by Alexandra Adornetto.

The International Kissing Club

It's January the 10th and I've finally managed to finish my first book for my challenge this year.

First I'll explain my challenge. I decided for the year of 2014 I will endeavour to read EVERY young adult book in my local library and get sponsorship for a certain amount of money per book... There is over 1000 books in the YA section alone but I'm definitely up for the challenge.

So now I've explained my challenge I'll explain about my first book.

Title: "The International Kissing Club"
Author: Ivy Adams
Plot: The story is about the tight friendship of four girls who live in a small country town called Paris, Texas who take the opportunity through their school to travel abroad to 4 different cities and be exchange students. One goes to the the REAL Paris, one to Australia, one to China and the last dreams of going to Costa Rica but ends up not being able to go and gets stuff in the small town while the other three jet off...

They all experience love, loneliness and heart break and the return home of the jet setters sets in motion some big fights in which the girls's friendship with each other is damaged is almost beyond repair but it gets fixed in the funniest way possible. It's a very cute and well written novel about friendship, love and life. It is definitely going on my list of books to buy for my personal library.

One of my favourite parts for me was on page 172 when the girl who went to Paris is talking to a guy in the Lourve about art and pieces she would like to see. I would really like to see some of those pieces.

Rating: 4 out of 5 "awwww's"

Now to start on my next novel and next up is "Watership Down".