Promises, Promises by L.J. Baker --- Book 3

Promises, Promises by L. J. Baker is a lesbian book, so it may not be your cup of tea. It isn't that bad though - I'm not a lesbian and I really rather enjoyed it! There is no sex in the book! (Thank goodness, because many lesbian literature contains this, and I'm not quite sure I'm ready for that yet. I don't even like sex in regular books). It's also a very humor-filled and cutesy book.     

ISBN: 1590213378

Promises, Promises stars a girl named Sandy. Sandy falls in to love with every beautiful girl that she meets. This will be her downfall in the very soon future. 

Sandy and her mom own a store that Sandy keeps up with - although it is not doing very well. Her plain friend, Ruth, and her crazy 'frienemy', Drusilla, come over often to talk to Sandy.

One day, a beautiful girl comes into Sandy's shop. Sandy falls head-over-heels in love with her, and tells the beautiful girl her "fortune/future" (although Sandy made everything up because she can't REALLY tell the future), even though it is against the law. Drusilla tries warning Sandy about this girl, but Sandy ignores her, thinking that she is being her normal crazy self.

Sandy soon comes to find out that the girl she told the future to was the Princess and guards come to arrest her for telling the future of the Princess. Drusilla soon comes to Sandy's rescue, before she is beheaded, and tells the King that these were but 'Promises' Sandy made to the Princess.

Now Sandy must go out on an adventure to make sure all of the promises come true for the Princess by a year or Ruth and Sandy's mother will be killed! 

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan --- Book 2

So, the next book in the summer challenge that I decided to read was The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan, which is the second book in the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

When I first bought these books, I actually did not know that they were about zombies. After I got into the first one I realized that the Unconsecrated or Mudo, in this book, were just another word for zombies! 

I think that Carrie Ryan did a great job writing these books! I believe that it would be really hard to have a good story line going and still include the whole zombie theme.

ISBN: 0385736855

In the beginning of the book, you come to find out that the main character is not the same from the first book. Instead, this book focuses on her daughter, Gabry. 

Gabry has always been afraid of the Mudo and has never wanted to leave her piece of land that her village lives on. But the other teenagers her age are very adventurous and curious of the world around them.

One day, her friends decided to go visit a old, abandoned theme park. Gabry didn't want to go, but does because the boy that she likes eggs her to go (and I mean come on, if you like someone, you are at least going to PRETEND to be like everyone else if he is around =) ).

The Mudo has never been around their village, so Gabry decides to go, even though if any of them get caught, they would be in big trouble if the rest of the Council caught them. 

Everything was perfect! The guy that she liked hung out with her the whole time, they held hands, and even kissed! This was Gabry's best day ever. Until at Breaker comes towards them.

Breakers are zombies that get separated from the rest of the herd. When this happens, they become faster and more powerful than most Mudo.

This book is great. You will feel a wide range of emotions as Ryan takes you through this post-apocalyptic world. Many things can happen - even things you least expect!

Stranger at Wildings by Madeleine Brent --- Book 1

My first book I'm reading this summer is Stranger at Wildings, by Madeleine Brent. If you have never read any Madeleine Brent books - pick up one now! They are SO amazing! They are out of print and you have to buy them owned. Also, they are hard to find in the US (even though the ones I have were printed here) - the author is a British male under the pen name of Madeleine Brent. His real name is Peter O'Donnell. It may be easier to find them in the UK?? I have no idea.

ISBN: 0385111010

Brent’s books are REALLY inspiring. While all of her/his books follow the same type of story line (romantic suspense – always stars a British girl – always includes a mysterious guy), they each have their own unique fingerprint which makes them all individually great!

Stranger at Wildings is about a girl, Chantel, whose past we know nothing about because she doesn’t want to talk about it. She comes to live and work at the circus as a trapeze artist with the Galletti family. One day she comes upon a guy named Martin who suffers from amnesia and knows nothing about his life before she met him. Suddenly, a tentman is found dead and Chantel’s trapeze bar breaks – which is found to be cut by a saw. Someone wanted her dead on purpose. But who? Martin? She was friends with Martin… Also, two new strangers come up to her and take her away to England! Is this the end of circus life?

That’s all I’m going to say about this book – but it’s a VERY good read and I recommend it to everyone, but it’s probably going to be a better read for the female followers! Thanks!

Here is the book cover of Stranger at Wildings (the one I own): 

But I feel that this version of the cover makes it more fun! (Since it's about a girl in the Circus!):

If anyone knows where the second cover is from tell me!! =)

50 Books - Summer Challenge!

This summer - since I have time on my hands instead of schoolwork - I will be reading 50 random books of my choice (hopefully I will get it all done! I at least expect to do 30). I was planning on doing only banned books, but I want to read many different types of books so they may or may not be banned as well as random.

These are the books I have lined up so far :

1. Stranger at Wildings by Madeleine Brent
2. Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan(2nd book of Forest of Hands and Teeth Series)
3. Promises, Promises by L.J. Baker
4. Minions of the Moon by William Gray Beyer
5. Star Cursed by Jessica Spotswood (2nd book of The Cahill Witch Chronicles, To Be Released on June 18th!)

If there are any suggestions, by all means - suggest!

Graceling

So when (a month or so ago) I had a bit of time to myself, I finally got to pick up one of my sister's books that she is letting me borrow called Graceling written by Kristin Cashore.

This book is simply brilliant. The main character, Katsa, is a strong female lead who can take care of herself and doesn't need anyone to help her. She was born with a 'grace'. 

People who are born with a Grace in this book are considered as outsiders that people do not want to be around except for in one part of this world Cashore made up.

A Grace is a power only select people are born with. For instance, Katsa's grace is killing people easily. For that reason, most people find her as a threat and want nothing to do with her. The king, on the other hand, basically owns her and uses her for his own purposes.

This is a tale of a woman who starts off friendless and all alone, but one day encounters another that also has a 'fighting' grace, Po. This is a tale of their journey to save his grandfather and to uncover conspiracies in the kingdoms of this world.

Graceling is not a female only book. While it does have romance in it, it is mostly full of adventure and fighting. Men and women alike fall in love with this world full of Graces.

The next book in the series is called Fire, and takes place before this world had happened. As soon as I finish it, I will do a review on that as well =)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

I actually picked up the second book first and read the back and figured out it wasn't the first book, but I REALLY wanted to read the second one... So I bought this one.

This book is about a girl, Mary, in a village surrounded by 'Unconsecrated' (aka Zombies). The village believes that they are the only ones left in the world. The village is ruled by The Sisterhood. Mary feels like she doesn't fit into this world and always seems like there should be 'more' to life. One day the Unconsecrated take over the village and Mary makes it out with her brother, her brothers wife, her best friend, her best friends' fiance, a little boy from the village and her own fiance. Together they go through the Forest of Hands and Teeth looking for a safe place to restart a village of their own.

When I first read the back of this book, and the second one, I didn't realize it was about zombies. So within the first chapter of reading this book I was like 'OMG... what did I get?!'

But actually Carrie Ryan did a GREAT job of describing 'Unconsecrated' in this book and I absolutely adored it!

This book is for anyone and everyone. I believe it has enough action, romance, and mystery to keep your head spinning.

I'm going to post a video I found on amazon, and Carrie Ryan's own webpage. I will probably collect her books. She is such a great author. I like a bit of horror in my novels from time to time and it seems like she has a couple of horror ish novels I will have to read.

Video

Carrie Ryan's Webpage

The Shunning

Hi again! I know it has been quite a while since I have been on this website, and why I probably have only one follower! I have been reading so much!! So I have many books to review! And I will do one a day to keep this site up to date =)

This book is, yes, a christian book. So some atheists out there might not like this one.

This is the first book of the Heritage of Lancaster County.

This is a book set in the Amish community, which I find very interesting. I love learning about Amish communities! I think that they have the most creative people. (And their cooking is probably so great! I salivate when they talk about dishes in the book.)

This book is based on a true story about the authors great-great grandmother (I believe, or her great-grandmother), but is set in a more current time frame.

This story is about a young Amish girl who has already promised to stay in the Amish community for the rest of her life. She is engaged to the Bishop of the Amish community, but doesn't really love him. Her beau from her younger years moved away and has died at sea, so she never really connected with any one else since then.

In order to not give away the rest of the book, I will quote what the author has written on the back.

"All her life she has longed for the forbidden things, but will her dreams come at a price too dear to pay? Why would Katie Lapp's mother, a plain and simple Amish-woman who embraces the Old Ways, hide a beautiful satin baby dress in the attic? The staggering answer comes on the eve of Katie's wedding to widower Bishop John, throwing her life - present and future - into confusion."

Okay, so for my review : I don't think this book is for everyone.

a) It won't be for the people who don't believe in God. Unless you can tolerate all of the mentioning of him.

1) Some will be able to tolerate it in the first book, but as it goes on it gets more into it.

b) If you are not big on romances.

1) It's not like this too much in the first book, but it will be as you read further into the rest of the books.

I really found it interesting myself. I learned a lot about the Amish and what they believe in this book. They are not Christian, so it doesn't turn into a Christian book until the end. They believe in God but they are VERY strict and like I said, I really liked it for the learning about the Amish purposes.

Also, it is a book about a girl doing what Amish think is 'forbidden' things. To me, any one doing something 'forbidden' is going to be a good book.

I can't really say much more about this unless I give away the book! Just read it! Its very twisty~

Here is Beverly Lewis' Webpage.