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Showing posts with label Book reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book reviews. Show all posts

Monday, September 5, 2011

Review: Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country


The prehistoric saga continues in Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country, the sequel to the award winning Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure. In this story, Zan s troubled twin brother, Dael, having suffered greatly during his earlier captivity, receives a ruinous new shock when his wife suddenly dies. Disturbed and traumatized, all of his manic energies explode into acts of hostility and bloodshed. His obsession is the destruction of the wasp men, his first captors, who dwell in the Beautiful Country. When he, Zan-Gah, and a band of adventurers trek to their bountiful home, they find that all of the wasp people have died in war or of disease. The Beautiful Country is empty for the taking, and Zan s people, the Ba-Coro, decide to migrate and resettle there. But the Noi, Dael's cruelest enemies and former tormentors, make the same migration from their desert home, and the possibility develops of contention and war over this rich and lovely new land.

  

        Once again, I found myself mesmerized by the prehistoric story of Zan-Gah and his tribe. I really liked how the story picked up from where it left off exactly. It didn't even really feel like this was a sequel, simply another chapter from the first book. I really liked how the story really came to life as I read it, in other words, I felt like I was literally there. 

          I liked how this sequel had a lot of universal themes in it, like some of the main ones were love, jealousy and war. Throughout the whole story, I felt really connected to Zan, because of all of the challenges and obstacles he had to overcome. Even when things got hard or he didn't know what to do, he never gave up when things got tough. 


Saturday, July 30, 2011

Review: The False Princess



Synopsis: Princess and heir to the throne of Thorvaldor, Nalia's led a privileged life at court.  But everything changes when it's revealed, just after her sixteenth birthday, that she is a false princess, a stand-in for the real Nalia, who has been hidden away for her protection.  Cast out with little more than the clothes on her back, the girl now called Sinda must leave behind the city of Vivaskari, her best friend, Keirnan, and the only life she's ever known.

Sinda is sent to live with her only surviving relative, an aunt who is a dyer in a distant village. She is a cold, scornful woman with little patience for her newfound niece, and Sinda proves inept at even the simplest tasks.  But when Sinda discovers that magic runs through her veins - long-suppressed, dangerous magic that she must learn to control - she realizes that she can never learn to be a simple village girl.

Returning to Vivaskari for answers, Sinda finds her purpose as a wizard scribe, rediscovers the boy who saw her all along, and uncovers a secret that could change the course of Thorvaldor's history, forever.

My thoughts: So a few days ago, I was just walking aimlessly around my local library(mostly in the teen section) and then I saw it, The False Princess. For some reason I couldn't help myself but run for the book. I think I was afraid that someone else would snatch it up. Anyways... I checked it out, started reading it, and BAM! I was addicted to it. The False Princess was a stunning novel, full of suspense, great characters and a trilling plot that twisted and turned.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The Frog Princess

          I have never ever, ever,EVER read a book this funny! The Frog Princess is just one of those books that you read when you need some romance with comedy!
As I was racing through the store to find my wonderful YA books, I tripped. That's right, I tripped! Over my own feet! HA.HA.HA. Laugh it up! And then fate kicked in. When I went to get up, I accidentally knocked down a book(yeah, yeah, I'm clumsy) So I picked it up and just stared at the cover. It just looked so intriguing and romancy(is that even a word???? whatever)
            
           Now normally, I wouldn't read a book titled "The Frog Princess" I mean it's probably just another retelling of the same, old, and over used story of the princess kissing a frog and finding her prince....blah,blah,blah. But boy was I wrong! This book was exactly the opposite!
Okay so basically this book is about a girl princess named Emeralda or Emma for short. Emma's mom wants her to marry a suitor named Prince Jorge and Emma hates him! To her, he's a major dork!
           
           So Emma goes to the pond and meets a frog.......that talks. The frog wants her to kiss him and then he can become a prince but Emma refuses. But eventually Emma is like(not actual words) "fine I'll kiss you if you leave me alone" So she kisses the frog and then they live happily ever after.....right? Wrong! Emma turns into a F.R.O.G! So Emma is stuck as a frog and the other frog, who is named Eadric is still a frog. Now what do they do? Well they decide to go on a quest looking for the very witch that turned Eadric into a green frog.
"The Frog Princess" is a fast page turning adventure! It has everything a book should have: 
  • LOVE
  • DRAMA
  • MAGIC
  • ADVENTURE
  • DANGER
  • COMEDY
  • SOME VIOLENCE(BUT NOT TO VIOLENT)
I couldn't put this book down, it was just......totally awesome!!!

Rating:

Characters 




Plot




Writing




Cover




Ending






Overall...... Four Stars!!!










Sunday, August 8, 2010

Princess of the Midnight Ball

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Published: January 2009

Summary from the official site:
          Returning home from the war, young Galen finds work with his mother’s family in the royal gardens. There he learns that the king’s twelve daughters have a secret: every night they dance their shoes to tatters, but no one knows how or why. When prince after prince tries and fails to find the answer, and the family is haunted by accusations of witchcraft, Galen decides to help. Armed with a pair of silver knitting needles and an invisibility cloak given to him by a strange old woman, he follows the princesses and unlocks the secret of their curse.

My review!!!!! :)
 In my opinion, this book was amazing!!! I can't believe that it took me so long to find this, I mean this book has it all! Romance! Drama! Magic! Princes! Princesses! Violence!(but ya know, not too much violence) 
Another great thing about this book, is that there are two stories being told at the same time. One side is about the oldest princess, Princess Rose. And the other side is from Galen, a former solider and now a palace gardener. Did you get that? If not, let me show you. Galen is a palace gardener and Rose is a princess. So........... princesses live in palaces and palaces have royal gardens!!!! So BAM!!!!! Here we are, Galen and Rose meet, therefore their stories are connected!
Overall this book was super amazing. The characters are so realistic, that when you finish the book, you'll feel like you've known them forever!!!! I simply adored how sweet Rose was and how brilliant Rose was! It's such a fun and sweet story that you'll fall head over heals for it!
Overall, I give this story five stars!!!!! Oh yeah, I almost forgot, this book also has some knitting patterns from story!!!! Visit the site to see some of them!!!
http://www.jessicadaygeorge.com/Books/PrincessOfTheMidnightBall/default.aspx
 





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