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".