Awakened - Review

Awakened (House of Night #8)
by P.C. and Kristin Cast
Rating: 5/5
www.houseofnightseries.co.uk 

This review might include spoilers if you haven't read the first books in the House of Night series. Read at your own risk.

"Zoey lives."
Neferet's voice was flat, cold, lifeless.
"She does. What will happen next?"
"It's quite simple. I will ensure Zoey is drawn back to Oklahoma. There, on my own terms, I will complete the task you failed."


Exonerated by the Vampyre High Council and returned to her position of High Priestess at Tulsa's House of Night, Neferet has sworn vengeance on Zoey. But Zoey has found sanctuary on the Isle of Skye and is being groomed by Queen Sgiach to take over for her there. Being queen would be cool, wouldn't it?


And what about Stevie Rae and Rephaim? The Raven Mocker refuses to be used against Stevie Rea, but what choice does he have when no one in the entire world, including Zoey, would be okay with their relationship? Does he betray his father or his heart?


It was a long time ago that I cried this much wile reading a book. Which is weird, because Awakened isn't a very sad book. Or, it's sad, but no depressed, horrible book about a person who's struggling with her miserable life and just wants to kill herself. So why did I cry so much? Because one of my favorite characters died in the first part of the book. It was awful! I started cry in the middle of the school cafeteria and couldn't concentrate on reading after that. Every time they mentioned the death in the rest of the book, I started weeping. I'm happy I read the major part of it at home.

So you obviously become attached to the characters. They're incredibly well developed (I know that that's a really worn out word in book reviews, but it describes it so well!) and everybody are so different! They have strong personalities and are just awesome. I love everyone of them and wouldn't want anything bad happen to them (except for Neferet, she's an evil bitch who can go to hell.)

The writing in Awakened isn't some beautiful poem like word magic, but something that really goes on in a teenagers head. It's really "teen like". It's good that P.C. took her daughter Kristin to help her to write the House of Night series. And OMG they mentioned True Blood and Glee in it!! (Which are to of my favorite tv-shows). Just had to tell you that.

Update - Vacation!

Hi!

I'm writing this to tell you that I'm not going to blog in about a week. Why, you may ask. Well, because I'm going to a ski resort here in Sweden for a week's skiing vacation. (No, I'm not gonna spend all the time reading books. What makes you think that? <- sarcasm) And my laptop thought that it would be fun to see what happen if it breaks down just before I need it the most. But I will have my iphone, and therefore twitter, with me! If you want to follow me on that, my name is magical_books.

But if you don't follow me on twitter, see you in a week!
/Olivia

Angel - Review

Angel (Angel Trilogy #1
by L.A. Weatherly
Rating: 5/5


Willow knows she's different from other girls. And not just because she loves tinkering around with cars. Willow has a gift. She can look into people's futures, know their dreams, their hopes and their regrets, just by touching them. She has no idea where she gets this power from ..


But Alex does. Gorgeous, mysterious Alex knows Willow's secret and is on a mission to stop her. The dark forces within Willow make her dangerous - and irresistible. In spite of himself, Alex finds he is falling in love with his sworn enemy.

Even though last year was the year of the angels, this was my first angel novel. I just haven't had the interest to read a book about a magical creature and a human who's love is impossible and blah blah blah. So when my mom returned from her trip to London and gave me Angel, I wasn't very excited. It has now been in my to be read pile quite a while, so I thought why not give it a go? I started reading and I read and read. I loved it!

Since I've never read a story about angels before, I barely have anything to compare Angel with. But angels have started moving to our planet and taking it over. They feed on humans' energy auras and leave the human with an Angel Burn. The human is weak and ill, but believing that he has experienced the most incredible moment in his life. People around the world are starting to grow major illnesses, caused by the angels, and worshiping the horrible creatures.

In the middle of all of this we find Willow. She loves cars and lives with her sick mother at her aunt's place. By one touch she can see your memories, dreams and future. But she has no idea why. The assassin Alex has been ordered to kill her, but obviously, they fall in love. And more than that I won't tell you. Because one of the thing I like about Angel is that you don't get to know everything in the beginning. You get a clue at the time and have to wait and see.

Even though this was a pretty huge book, I read it fast and didn't grow tired of it. I was flipping pages and always was eager to read more. I enjoyed Angel much more that I had expected. I thought it would be okay, but it was amazing! A deep love story with a lot of emotions and action. It is a good introduction to a, hopefully, amazing trilogy. Everybody should read this and I can't believe that I have to wait until june to read the sequel, Angel Fire!

Booking Through Thursday - Periodically

Booking Through Thursday

Even I read things other than books from time to time … like, Magazines! What magazines/journals do you read?

My two top magazines that I read every edition of, I'd have to say is a finnish teen magazine called Demi and a swedish science magazine called Illustrerad Vetenskap (what can I say, I'm a nerd). Since I don't read any finnish books, I try to uphold my finnish skills by reading Demi (doesn't mean anything, it's just a name). And, as I said, I'm a big nerd and a sucker for chemistry, physics and technology I read Illustrerad Vetenskap (which means illustrated science, lol).

I also a few times a year buy single copies of Vogue US, InStyle UK or Elle UK. I love fashion. But these magazines cost about as much as a paperback book does here in Sweden (about $16. I know, It's crazy) so I try to cut back on these magazines and use the money on books instead.

And I have a bad habit of sometimes taking my dad's computer magazines out of the mail box, reading them and forgetting to return them to him. He he. And the last magazines I have to include in this list is a few news papers. A morning paper called Dagens Nyheter (translation: Today's News. Yeah, the people who founded this paper had a really good imagination), Sweden's edition of Metro and two news papers called Aftonbladet (The evening paper, again, really good imagination) and Expressen (=express)

Noteworthy blog posts (1)

I love reading book blogs. Especially "special-posts" (Sorry, I don't have a better word for it). Posts that aren't reviews, memes, features etc. Just unique, one time posts about thoughta, tips and other fun things. And I thought that I would start "collecting" these posts on by blog. So you guys can find good blog posts and I can come back and reread my favorites. And no, this won't be one post that will be updated whenever I find a new post I'd like to share. I'll write new posts once in a while.

Series vs Standalones an interesting post by Bookwormbouleward.

Thoughts on: e-books v. books by Word for Teens. I appreciate posts about e-books a lot. I'm myself wondering about whether I should buy an e-reader or not. So I want other peoples opinion. I'd like to have one, but I think I would miss having physical copies in my bookshelf. So I would probably end up buying real life copies, and owning both an e-book copy and a "real" one. Which would not do good for my book buying economy. If you know about any other e-book posts please comment with a link! Or tell me what you think about your e-reader if you have one :)

10 signs of book  addiction by the Story Siren. I like this one a lot. Though it's sad to now have it on paper, I am a book addict. Number 8 is the one that describes me the best. Mom: "Olivia, it's time for the christmas meal now! Everybody are waiting for you!" Me: "Wait! Just let me finish these last 100 pages, I'll be there soon!"


BEA budget. One from The Story Siren and another from Wastepaper prose. Though I'm obviously not going to BEA, I like the tips in these posts. And they doesn't fit for only BEA, the tips can be used to other traveling as well!



Love, Olivia

Specials (Uglies #3) - Review

Specials (Uglies #3)
by Scott Westerfeld
Rating: 4,5/5 stars

This review might include spoilers if you haven't read the first books, Uglies and Pretties. Read at your own risk!

Tally thought they were a rumor, but now she's one of them. A Special. A super-amped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid.


But maybe being perfectly programmed with strength and focus isn't better than anything she's ever known. Tally still has memories of something else.


But it's easy for her to tune that out - until she's offered a chance to stamp out the rebels of the new smoke permanently. It all comes down to one last choice: listen to that tiny, faint heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.


Review:


Tally's a special. She's a part of her best friend Shay's group, the cutters.  Their mission is to find the new Smoke and bring it down. I love the plot in Specials more than I did in Uglies and Pretties. Especially the last part of the book. But I can't tell you about it! Frustrating!

When I started reading Specials I was scared that I wouldn't like it. I had read lots of negative reviews on it and I was kind of disappointed by Pretties. I wanted to love Specials as much as I had loved Uglies. And gosh, I did. It was amazing! But the problem is that all the wonderful, lovely bits I love, happens in the last parts of the books. Or in the beginning, but still are huge spoilers. So I can't just ramble about all the parts I loved, cause then you guys would get angry at me for spoiling the book for you!

But I do think that this book would have been a good ending for the series. So I really don't understand why Scott Westerfeld wrote Extras. And I read that it's about some other girl, not Tally. Not that I'm complaining, I love that there's another book! I will be hard to leave the Uglies world, I love it! (Not all the brain lesion thingies, but god the technology!) How cool wouldn't it be with interface rings, bungee jackets, hover boards ..? Give me please!

When I got into the story and passed my awful non-reading days, it was a really quick read. I like the author's writing. It's very fast paced and suits the story well. Unfortunately I sometimes had to reread a page in the big action scenes, just to keep up with what was happening. But I can live with that in a book this good.

If you already haven't read the Uglies series, do it!

Books read in 2011

January
Gone - Michael Grant
Gucci Wars - Jenny Gucci
Pretties - Scott Westerfeld
Hunger - Michael Grant
Här ligger jag och blöder - Jenny Jägerfeldt
Specials - Scott Westerfeld
Angel - L.A. Weatherly 
Awakened - P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Jonas - Eden Maguire
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Fallen - Lauren Kate

February
The Awakening - L.J. Smith
The Struggle - L.J. Smith
Gossip Girl the Carlyles - Cecily von Ziegesar
Håpas Du Trifs Bra I Fengelset - Susanna Alakovski
Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver
Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green & David Levithan

March
If I Stay - Gayle Forman
Där Drömmar Blir Till - Emma Andersson
Parasite Positive - Scott Westerfeld
The Replacement - Brenna Yovanoff
Before I Die - Jenny Downham
Beastly - Alex Flinn

April
Lies - Michael Grant
Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Zombicorns - John Green
Frostbite - Richelle Mead
Anna and the French Kiss - Stephenie Perkins
13 Little Blue Envelopes - Maureen Johnson

May
Encalve - Ann Aguirre
Cirkeln - Mats Strandberg & Sara Bergman Elfgren
Divergent - Veronica Roth
The Summer I Lost It - Natalie Kath

June
Ultraviolet - R.J. Anderson
Prelude to a Hero - Jaime Buckley

Sometime during the summer ..
Plague - Michael Grant
City of Bones - Cassandra Clare
City of Ashes - Cassandra Clare
The Way of Shadows - Brent Weeks
Shadow's Edge - Brent Weeks
Feed - Mira Grant
Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the Last Straw - Jeff Kinney
Wither - Lauren DeStefano
Tower of Parlen Min - Matt Xell

September
Zombie Apocalypse! - Stephen Jones
Between Shades of Gray - Ruta Sepetys
Spellbound - Cara Lynn Shultz
Dragon's Oath - P.C. and Kristin Cast

October
Röd Skyming - Fredrik Lindblom
Solid - Shelly Workinger
Beyond the Shadows - Brent Weeks
Across the Universe - Beth Revis
Sailor Moon v1 - Naoko Takechuni
Looking for Alaska - John Green
City of Glass - Cassandra Clare
Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Jeff Kinney

November
Låt den rätte komma in - John Ajvide Lindqvist
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan
The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - J.K. Rowling
Quidditch Through the Ages - J.K. Rowling
Unearthly - Cynthia Hand
1984 - George Orwell

Booking Through Thursday - Firsts

 Booking Through Thursday

Do you remember the first book you bought for yourself? Or the first book you checked out of the library? What was it and why did you choose it?

 So, the first book I bought .. I really can't remember this. I know that I very often went book shopping with my grandma when I was about eight, but I really don't remember which the first book I bought was. And I can't remember which book was the first one I borrowed from the library.

Sooo, I'll talk about the first books I read and bought in english! (cause no, I haven't read english books ever since I started reading. I didn't even talk english when I started reading.) I think I started reading english books seriously about one and a half years ago. Before that I had read a couple of MG books just to try to prove to everyone that I could if I wanted to. But I preferred reading in swedish.

The spring of 2009 I read Twilight and fell in love. One of my parents best friends had them in english so he gave them to me when he heard that I liked them. And I reread them in english. That was when I discovered that I could read in english, that it wasn't hard at all. So when we were in Italy a few months later (and I had finished all the books I had with me from Sweden) I went into a bookshop to buy more books. And what do I find there, if not Stephenie Meyer's new book, the Host?! I flipped out. I loved Twilight, but wasn't involved in book communities the way I am now and just assumed that she hadn't written more that the Twilight series. So I bought it. And that's the first book I bought in english.

January 12th Update

Hello guys!

I thought I'd give you a quick update about my reading. School started again this monday and I've been exhausted ever since. I've been walking around like a zombie, snapping at everybody who tries to talk with me. I'm still not used to getting up this early in the morning and can't go to bed in time, because all of my teachers thought that it would be a good idea to give us a ton of homework on our first day after vacation. I disagree with all of my heart.

And because I've been this tired, I have literally not read a page in three days (except for schoolbooks). But I struggeled with starting Specials today after school and hope to get into my reading routines again soon. I finished the swedish book I was reading on sunday. And I wrote a review in a notebook, but  lost it. I know, I'm a pro. I'll try to find it soon, or else I'll just write a new one.

See you soon!
Love, Olivia

Hunger - Review

Hunger (Gone #2)
by Michael Grant
Rating: 5/5


This review may include spoilers if you haven't read Gone by Michael Grant. Read my review of Gone here.


106 Hours 29 Minutes


Suddenly it's a world without adults and normal has crashed and burned. When life as you know it ends at 15, everything changes.


An uneasy calm has settled over Perdido Beach. But soon fear explodes into desperation as starvation sets in. More and more kids are developing strange powers and, just as frighteningly, so are the animals in the FAYS. And in the background, in an abandoned mineshaft, lies the greatest danger of all - and he too needs to be fed ...


Review:


Hunger picks up three months after (as they call it) the big Thanksgiving Fight. Sam is president of Peredido Beach, a title which he's not so happy about. He's fearing an attack from Caine and trying to provide the starving kids with food, a kind of hard task now that the fields have been invaded by mutated killer worms ..

The Gone series feels very realistic to me. Not that I think that anything like the FAYZ would ever happen, but if it did, I think that thinks would be like in these books. People panicking, fighting, doing illegal stuff, ruining the city. Just going crazy and out of control.

Because of all the amazing subplots and side characters, we get a little of everything. Love, bullying, hate and all of the common (and uncommon) teenage problems. I would really love to read a whole book just about Mary's struggle with her eating disorders, Jack's not knowing where to fit in or Lana's story about being sent to her granddad in the wilderness. Michael Grant has smashed all of these (plus a lot more) good plots into one epic, awesome story. And it's not confusing or hard to keep up with at all.

You get to hear one persons backstory before they become a part of the main story. So you don't have to sit through lots of pages with a person talking about where he came from, who he is, what have happened to him .. You already know him. And I feel that I can relate to the new characters stories much easier if I "was there" when it happened.

And all of these cliffhangers Grant leaves us with when he changes the story teller! I just wanted to read, read and read to see what they would do next, how they would solve this and that. And all the questions I wanted an answer to! What is the darkness? What happens if you fall for the temptation and poof? And how the hell are they going to get out of this FAYZ mess?!

I ran to my computer and bought the third book, lies, the minute after I finished Hunger. I'm really looking forwards to reading the rest of the series and recommend it to everyone. This are a bunch of books you can't miss. It's a shame that they haven't gotten more attention.