L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad

L.A. Candy Series #1

YA Fiction, Published 2009

Challenges: YA Book Challenge 2009, Series Challenge III

Read: Dec. 2009

Rating: 4/5

Movie Rating: PG-13

For anyone looking for a sweet treat for Valentines Day! <3

From the Cover:

Los Angeles is all about hot clubs, cute guys, designer…everything.  Nineteen-year-old Jane Roberts and her BFF, Scarlett, can’t wait to start living it up.  And when a TV producer wants them to star in a “reality version of Sex and the City,” they can hardly believe their luck.  Their own show?  Yes, please!

Soon Jane is television’s hottest star and she’s lapping up the VIP treatment with her entourage of new pals.  But those same friends are also angling for a piece of her spotlight.  In a city filled with people chasing their dreams, it’s not long before Jane realizes that everyone wants something from her and nothing is what it seems to be.

Review:

Very entertaining. I have seen the first few seasons of The Hills and like so many can’t stand Heidi, Spencer, or even Audrina, but I do like Lauren, Lo, Whitney and Brody, of course.   The book is loosely based on LC’s experiences on her reality shows without, according to her, revealing too much truth about her fellow co-stars.  I definitely grew attached to Jane’s character, although I found her to be a little too naive at times.  I loved her BFF Scarlet, though, and hope she plays a bigger role in the next book.

Some have called Lauren’s writing to be childish, but I thought it was easy to read, flowed really well for the most part and was funny.  It seems Lauren likes to take jabs at herself and her friends, which leaves the reader often comparing the book characters to those in the show.

Jane and Scarlet have finished high school and moved out to L.A. on their own, so the book focuses on storylines of young adults going out to bars, mostly to meet guys and drink alcohol, as well as dealing with their first jobs and the new TV series and how to put up with being told what to do under contract.  I think the Young Adult fiction category is a little tricky on this one because I think an older young adult audience is perfect, however, anyone younger than 16-17 I think this content would be too inappropriate for them.

Looking forward to the sequel, Sweet Little Lies, which is arriving at my doorstep today (February 2, 2010).

Check out Lauren’s favorite books!

Truly, Madly (ARC) by Heather Webber (Lucy Valentine #1)

Truly, Madly by Heather Webber

Lucy Valentine Series #1

Fiction/Chick-Lit, Published 2010

ARC from LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Series Challenge IV

Read Jan 10

4.5/5

From the Cover:

Lucy hails from a long line of matchmakers known as Valentine, Inc.  According to family legend, the Valentines have been blessed by Cupid with the psychic ability to help couples find true love.  Trouble is, Lucy’s powers were zapped away by an electrical surge and now all she can do is find lost objects.  What good is that in the matchmaking world?  You’d be surprised.  In a big city like Boston, love is a mystery – and Lucy’s upstairs neighbor, Sean Donahue, is a hot private eye whose job is murder.  With a little luck, she can help solve the perfect crime and find her own perfect match – with Sean.

Review:

Very enjoyable debut series by Heather Webber.  After some googling, I found that she has another mystery series out called Nina Quinn as well as a few stand-alone romance novels.  I love the premise of the Valentines being blessed by Cupid himself with generations of matchmakers in the family.  Lucy’s father runs the business and he has the family ability, yet his only daughter does not as it was “zapped” out of her at age 14 during a storm while she was gabbing to her BFF.  Lucy knows she has eternally let her father and the line of Valentines down by not being able to match-make couples.  Besides being blessed with special abilities, the Valentines have been cursed by Cupid in their own lives.

While her parents go out of town to avoid her father’s latest mishaps in his own love life, he leaves Lucy in charge on the family business.  He tells her she should have no problem and it’s only for 2 weeks, how much harm could she really cause?

Lucy can find lost objects by touching people’s hands.  But there are strict conditions to her ability.  They have to be thinking of that object and they have to be the one who lost it, unless it was a gift.  This has led Lucy to avoid shaking people’s hands, but this is usually unavoidable in business.  While meeting her first client during her father’s sabbatical, Lucy finds his lost object, but how does she explain to the police how she found it?

When I first picked up this book, I was a little hesitant thinking it was going to be like every other chick-lit and not be too entertaining but wanted to get through it since it was an ARC.  Hopefully all the grammatical and spelling errors will be fixed in the official version.  By the third chapter, I was hooked and just had to find out how Lucy was going to fully utilize her special abilities.  With her sexy private investigator, Sean, in-tow, Lucy unravels a few of her clients’ mysteries as well as a missing child in town all while trying to keep Valentine, Inc. from going under while her father is away.

Truly, Madly is available February 2, 2010 and the sequel, Deeply, Desperately debuts in August 2010.  I can’t wait to see what’s in store for Ms. Lucy Valentine!  Click here for more information about the author.

Quotes:

Just Like Heaven

Just Like Heaven by Marc Levy

Unabridged Audiobook narrated by Michael McGlone

Fiction, Published 2000 (Originally published as If Only It Were True)

Read Jan 10

Rating: 3.5/5

Verdict: Good, but it’s off to Paperbackswap for someone else to enjoy.

From the Cover:

What do you do when you find a stranger in your closet and she can disappear and reappear at whim?  What if she then tells you that her body is actually in a coma on the other side of town?  What starts off as a dilemma that Arthur is faced with when he discovers Lauren in his apartment, becomes a heartwarming love story that’s impossible to forget.

Review:

I picked up this audiobook in the bargain section at bn.com, which is a wonderful and the primary source for my ever-growing book collection, after falling in love with the movie.  The unabridged audio version is roughly 6 hours long, which lasted me 3 days in the car driving back and forth to work.  If you have seen the movie, the book follows very closely with only a few differences, mostly to keep the movie fresh, funny, and does not get into all the family history that the book contains.

Lauren, a successful ER surgeon with little free time, finally has the weekend off and decides to take a trip down the Pacific Coast.  However, on her way out of town, the steering goes out in her old car and she wrecks into a store front, crashing through the window and flipping her car over several times.  The EMS that arrive on the scene do everything they can to save Lauren, but finally announce her time of death.  Lauren’s body is then loaded into the ambulance and is enroute to the hospital.  The doctor on the scene was very distraught with Lauren’s death, since she was so young and very beautiful.  Such a waste.  As the ambulance crosses an intersection, a Saab comes out of nowhere not even slowing down and crashes into the ambulance.  The impact of the crash restarts Lauren’s heart and she arrives at the morgue with a pulse!  Her lungs are breathing and heart is beating on it’s own, slow as it is, but no other sign of life remains.  Six months with Lauren in a coma go by meanwhile her mother rents out her still furnished apartment.  A young architect, who happens to drive a Saab, moves into Lauren’s old apartment.  Arthur loves his new place and feels very comfortable and finally at home until one day as he’s singing in the shower, he hears something or someone singing along with him…

In the movie, “Elizabeth” is on her way to a blind date at her sister’s house and dies in a car crash while driving in the rain.  Lauren is an only child in the book.  Her date, David, which is much better and more current name than Arthur, sees her right away.  He rents out her apartment and Elizabeth does not know why he’s there. She doesn’t know she’s in a coma and David starts to think they have both been conned in a renter’s scam.  When he finally comes to terms that she is in fact a ghost, he has the Ghost Busters come to cleanse her out of the apartment.

Arthur soon finds himself helping Lauren, spending every second he has with her.  He even tries to prevent her mother from ending her life, trying to convince those around her seemingly lifeless body in the hospital that it’s not too late, that Lauren is still alive and wants to live.  Arthur gives up everything to save her and his best friend thinks he has completely lost it to fall in love with a ghost.

Reese Witherspoon always makes a movie good, but the true story was just as entertaining.  The chase to keep Lauren alive and learning the Arthur’s back-story really made the book enjoyable.  Perfect story for the upcoming “Spring Fever” season.

Marc Levy is a french novelist and this is the only one of his books that has been translated into English.  Apparently there’s a sequel but is only available in French, which I find very disappointing.

Quotes:

“What I have to tell you is not easy to understand, impossible to accept. But if you will listen to my story – if you are willing to trust me — then maybe in the end you’ll believe me. And it’s very important that you, in particular, should believe me. For, without knowing it, you are the only person in the world I can share my secret with.”

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

YA Book Challenge 2009, Series Challenge III

YA fiction, Published 2007

Read Dec 2009

Rating: 5/5

Movie Rating: PG

Recommended to anyone who is in or ever went to middle school.

It’s a new year at middle school and Greg Heffley’s mom has given him a journal to hopefully reign in some of his obnoxious behavior. Greg points out to not expect “Dear Diary this and Dear Diary that” from him and if anyone finds out he’s keeping a journal, especially his older brother Rodrick, he’s dead.

I loved this book.  The book feels like a journal, with lines and all. Greg writes and draws to explain his misadventures at school and home.  I can see why this book has been claimed to get the many reluctant young readers back to reading again. Greg is the underdog that everyone wants to root for. His parents and teachers don’t understand him and he often gets in trouble. He’s the butt of this older brother’s jokes and has to keep on top of his younger brother, Manny, or he’ll get it too. He’s not the most popular kid in school, in fact he has one best friend, Rowley, and he’s mostly friends with him so he can play his video games down the street at his house.

The story arc revolves around a piece of cheese that must have fallen out of someone’s sandwich the year before and has laid on the blacktop in the school playground ever since.  Anyone who touches the cheese is cursed with the “Cheese Touch”, but luckily everyone is in the clear this year since the guy that was last cursed moved off at the end of last year.  But the piece of cheese has become even nastier this year and Greg is very aware of its whereabouts at all times on the playground. It soon comes back to haunt Greg and Rowley toward the end of the year.

In between the “Cheese Touch,” Greg survives September through June of another year in middle school.  I thought many of the situations Greg finds himself in are very humorous and indicative of middle school and I think everyone will find something to relate to. You’ll have to get your hands on this one to discover all of Greg’s misadventures.

On to Rodrick Rules…

R.I.P. IV Challenge

The Challenge:

There are two simple goals to the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril Challenge:

1. Have fun reading.
2. Share that fun with others.

As I do each and every year, there are multiple levels of participation that allow you to be a part of R.I.P. IV without adding the burden of another commitment to your already busy lives.

R.I.P. IV officially runs from September 1st through October 31st. But lets go ahead and break the rules. Lets start today!!!

Multiple perils await you. You can participate in just one, or participate in them all.

R.I.P. IV Review Site

MY LIST:

• Among the Shadows: Tales from the Darker Side by L.M. Montgomery
• 1st to Die by James Patterson
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
• The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
  
• Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson #2) by Patricia Briggs
  
• A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott
• The Host by Stephenie Meyer
• A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole
• Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo
• The Glass Book of Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist
• The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
• In the Woods by Tana French
  

The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Review

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Children’s Fiction, Published 2007

2008 Caldecott Medal Finalist

J. Kaye’s Book Blog – 2009 Young Adult Book Challenge #1

Read Sept 2009

5/5

From the Cover:

Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo’s dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.

Review:

Hugo, a 12 year old boy lives within the walls of a Paris train station in the early 1930s.  Hugo’s father died when he was small and all he has left of his father is a notebook of drawings and a broken automaton.  Hugo has been left in the care of his Uncle, who is the train station’s clock keeper, but Hugo’s uncle is a drunk and comes up missing, leaving Hugo to care for all the clocks in the station alone.  Meanwhile, Hugo works on his father’s automaton which he has to steals parts from a toy booth in the train station to repair it.  He soon becomes entangled with the toy booth keeper and his goddaughter. Hugo is determined to get his father’s automaton working and find out what the toy maker is so interested in his father’s notebook and what he has to do with it all.

While this book at first glance looks a little menacing, I was quickly swept away with the beautiful illustrations.  It is part children’s adventure novel and part graphic novel.  But the pictures don’t just illustrate the words, they help tell the story.  Hugo races around the train station trying to keep all the clocks in working order so his Uncle’s disappearance will go unnoticed as long as possible as well as repair his father’s automaton.  In the midst of high adventure, the story leaves off and picks up with 20 pages or more of illustrations telling Hugo’s story and then picks right back up with the words.  It’s a great bedtime story for children of all ages.

Bitsy’s Bait & BBQ

“I just bought us a B&B on eBay!”

With 31 notes from Bitsy, how could you go wrong?  While this is not strictly considered a southern read as it takes place in the Missouri Ozarks, I think this small town community could be placed anywhere in the south.  (Being from Texas it is sometimes hard to determine what is southern, when really it all lies north of here – south of the Mason-Dixon line?  I’m not sure.  That seems awfully far north to me.)  Katy has just taken her divorce settlement and bought a quiet B&B on the shores of Warbler Lake.  She packs her son, Josh, up with her very protective older sister, Emma, in tow and quickly discovers she may have gotten herself in over her head as she arrives in town.  It turns out the description on the ebay listing was not exactly what she had pictured.  Instead of buying a quaint bed & breakfast, Katy has just become the proud (somewhat) owner of the lake town’s bait shop and BBQ joint.  Katy is determined to make the best of things and not show her disappointment to Emma, who definitely believes Katy is in way over her head.

Just when the sisters get into the swing of things at the B&B, complications (i.e. the ex-husband and ex-mother-in-law) show up.

While looking on my Amazon buying history (of which we don’t need to go into…eeek!), it appears I bought this one back in September of 2007. I really enjoyed this read and I’m a little sad it stayed so long in my ever-growing TBR pile.   Southern fiction readers will enjoy the idiosyncrasies of the lake town’s folks as well as the family bond between the new B&B owners.   While you’ll have to overlook a few spelling and word omission errors as well as the sappy makeup love reunion that felt a bit forced, overall, I thought Bitsy’s B&B was a light-hearted read with a happy ending. Definitely a fun summer beach read, even if you never make it to the beach!

Quotes:

Gwen on connecting to the outside world (p. 203):

She wrote copious notes on everything she saw, including quotes from the locals on specific topics.  And then took that information to the only place in town that could handle it: Lake Hill Cemetery.

It said something about Warbler Lake that the only group of people in town who had updated access to global communications were the dead ones.  It was only atop this hill that little towers showed up in the corner of her PDA, and she walked through the tombstones to find the best signal.  The Bullock bench wasn’t the very best, but it was close.

Luella’s response to Gwen sitting on her husband’s bench (p. 241):

“Gwen knows your husband,” Latt said.

The old woman’s face lit up with surprise.  Gwen turned to glance at her companion, completely dumbfounded.

“She sits every day on that wonderful bench you put up for him in the cemetery,” Latt explained.

Gwen was momentarily horrified that Latt should make such a casual mention of something so sad.  To her surprise, Luella laughed.

“Trying to make cell phone calls, I’d wager,” she said.  “I swear, I should have had them design it like a phone booth, that’s what everybody uses it for.”

“I…uh…”  Gwen felt that she should apologize, but she wasn’t quite sure how or why.

“I’m sure Carlton enjoys the company,” Luella said.  “But I’d be careful, an attractive young woman like you sitting above him, that old coot will be trying to get a look up your skirt.”

Latt’s joke for Gwen (p. 237):

Did you hear the one about the hillbilly gal who went to town?

She was sitting in a coffee shop with two city women,” he said.  “Suddenly there was a beeping sound and one of the city women touched her forearm.  The hillbilly gal asked her about it.  ‘That’s my pager,’ the woman told her.  ‘I have a microchip imbedded [sic] under the skin of my arm.’  The hillbilly gal was pretty impressed.  Then a couple of minutes later the other woman lifter her palm to her ear and began talking.  When she finished she told the hillbilly gal, ‘That’s my digital phone.  The entire integrated system has been surgically implanted in my hand.’  Well, the hillbilly gal was almost overwhelmed with the idea of that.”

“I’m sure,” Gwen said.

“So she was feeling very backwoods and low-tech and she just had to think of something to impress these city women.  Suddenly she got up and went to the bathroom.  When she came back she had a long tail of toilet paper hanging down from the back of her dress.  ‘Well, will you look a that,’ she told the city women.  ‘I’m getting a fax.’”

Book Details:

Bitsy’s Bait & BBQ by Pamela Morsi

Southern Reading Challenge Three #2

Fiction, Published 2007

Read July 2009

3/5

Read my first review for the Southern Reading Challenge Three – The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen – Review

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Southern Reading Challenge Three #1

Fiction, Published 2008

Read June 2009

4/5

From the Cover:

Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet.

Review:

Once again Sarah Addison Allen impresses with her yummy confections.  Josie’s predictable and somewhat reclusive lifestyle is turned upside down when Della Lee Baker, a girl known for being strange, shows up in Josie’s closet.  Della Lee will not only not leave Josie’s closet, but she discovers Josie’s secret stash of sweets and romance novels.  Josie agrees to let Della Lee stay for a few days so she won’t tell anyone about her stash.  Not only does Josie have to run her mother around town for all her social gatherings, but Della Lee soon sends her on a few errands of her own.

It seems everyone at Bald Slope has secrets.  Della Lee sends Josie around town in order to get her out of her room and away from her mother as well as put Josie in the path of learning the truth about her father, the town’s founder. Josie eventually closes in on the mysteries of the town and its people, especially what led Della Lee to her closet in the first place.

Each chapter of The Sugar Queen is cleverly themed with a different candy to reveal a new plot twist with Lemon Drops, SweeTarts, Sugar Daddy, Life Savers to name a few.   All the book lovers will love Chloe, the sandwich shop owner.

If you’ve got a sweet tooth, you can’t go wrong with this one!

Book Quotes:

It was embarrassing enough being such a sorry excuse for a Southern belle.  Her weight, her unfortunate hair, her secret dreams of leaving her mother who needed her, of leaving and never looking back.  Respectable daughters took care of their mothers.  Respectable daughters did not hide enormous amounts of candy in their closets. -p. 6

She’d found the door between the two closets by accident, when she would sit in her closet and eat candy she hid in her pockets when she was young.  Back then she used to hide from her mother in the secret space just to worry her, but now she stocked it with magazines, paperback romances and sweets.  Lots and lots of sweets.  Moonpies and pecan rolls, Chick-O-Sticks and Cow Tales, Caramel Creams and Squirrel Nut Zippers, Red Hots and Bit-O-Honey, boxes upon boxes of Little Debbie snack cakes.  The space had a comforting smell to it, like Halloween, like sugar and chocolate and crisp plastic wrappers. -p. 9-10

She [Chloe] could remember very clearly the first time it happened to her.  Being an only child on the farm miles from town, she was bored a lot.  When she ran out of books to read, it only got worse…She’d find them on her bed, in her closet, in her favorite hideouts around the property.  And they were always books she needed.  Books on games or novels of adventure when she was bored.  Books about growing up as she got older…Books liked her.  Books wanted to look after her. p.35-36

Also Recommended: Sarah Addison Allen’s Garden Spells

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink – Review

Image from Wikipedia

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Translated from German by Carol Brown Janeway

Historical Fiction, Published 1997

Read Feb 2009

3/5

From the Cover:

Set in postwar Germany, The Reader is a provocative, morally challenging, and deeply moving novel about a young boy’s erotic awakening in a clandestine love affair with a mysterious older woman. Falling ill on his way home from school, 15-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. For a time, the two become passionate lovers. Then, one day, Hanna disappears without a word. Years later, as a law student observing a trial in Germany, Michael recognizes his former lover on the stand, accused of a hideous crime. And as he watches Hanna refuse to defend herself against the charges, Michael gradually realizes that she may be guarding a secret more shameful than murder.

Book Quotes:

Imagine someone is racing intentionally towards his own destruction and you can save him – do you go ahead and save him?

Review:

I wanted to read this book after seeing the movie trailer with Kate Winslet.  While I thought the book was thought provoking, I didn’t really like it or think it should be considered a love story.  Pride, guilt, shame, cowardice and an overall feeling of numbness surrounded this novel for me.

I don’t think Hanna ever loved Michael and Michael only thought he loved Hanna.  Michael is only 15 and he is easily taken in by Hanna who uses him and then leaves him.  But I don’t think Michael is innocent.  He struggles with keeping the affair to himself and becomes consumed with anger, jealousy and possessiveness.  Later when Michael has a chance to partially redeem Hanna’s actions during the trial, he does not act.  He does nothing.  Michael is guilty for not standing up for truth and honor.  He realizes that Hanna could not be as responsible for the crimes committed at the concentration camps because she cannot read or write.  That is why she had him read to her, why she had the women at the camps read to her.  But Hanna is prideful and refuses to let on that she did something wrong.  Without showing any remorse, the full judgment of all the crimes committed to the Jews at the concentration camps is put on Hanna.

Michael never recovers from his relationship with Hanna.  He never moves on, even after marrying and having a child.  He is so consumed that he cannot love.  In an act of redemption, Michael sends tapes of him reading to Hanna in prison.  Hanna tries to redeem herself by learning to read and write in prison and by helping others.  In the end, Hanna never forgives Michael for not visiting or witnessing her growth and Michael never forgives Hanna for not loving him and once again she leaves him forever with no goodbyes.

Movie Trailer:

Naughty Neighbor by Janet Evanovich

Naughty Neighbor by Janet Evanovich

Fiction, Published 1992, 2008

Read May 2009

3.5/5

Louisa Brannigan’s neighbor was driving her crazy.  He snatched her newspaper and listened through her townhouse walls.  But when she got fired from her government job, Pete was there, asking her to join his undercover operation.  So Louisa was hopelessly entangled – professionally speaking – with the sexiest man alive.  Sneaking around the corners was fun, especially when the getaway car was a Porsche.  Suddenly, Louisa was enjoying life on the edge.

Review:

This was my first Janet Evanovich read and another great $1 find at Half Price Books.  It was quick, lighthearted and fun.  Definitely a great way to start my graduate school free summer!